A Week in Tokyo
by MadamWriterGal
Summary: Van, Allen, Dryden, and Gaddes get transported to the Mystic Moon. Will they be able to fit in or will they just get into trouble on the strange new world? Read to find out.
1. Bus Stop

A Week in Tokyo

Chapter One: Bus Stop

Van stood at a brightly colored shack with his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his light brown pants. The sign overhead was spelled in Mystic Moon letters that he could not decipher. He was trying to remember how he had managed to get himself into this mess in the first place.

Allen stood next to him with a frown on his face, arms crossed over the blue straps of his knight attire. He didn't seem the least bit amused to be there either. Dryden and Gaddes were there standing on opposite sides of the two spitting and cursing. Van let out a heavy breath and stared at the empty road in front of him. Where were they anyway?

Van thought about the events that lead to the lot of them waiting next to what appeared to be a Mystic Moon trade road with a hint of disgust reflected in his eyes.

A week before, the four men had planned a hunting trip. Allen figured it was a good way to get Van's mind off of his royal council. The council began pressuring him to find a wife after the first year Van and Hitomi had been separated and things fell into a kind of turmoil after that. Every day after the first year apart from Hitomi, one of his annoying council members would come up and ask him if he had found a bride.

Van had made it very clear that he did not intend to marry any of the women that they showed to him but his words didn't seem to register. Every first week out of the new month Van was forced to go have dinner at some duchess house or go horseback riding with a princess from some obscure country he had never heard of. It was enough to drive any man insane.

After five years of putting up with this Van was starting to crack. He would purposely 'forget' to go on dates, which caused strained relationships with the other kingdoms that his council members had to apologize for later. This made the head council member, Vladimir Kent, do something unthinkable.

Vlad proclaimed that Van would have to get married by the end of the year or the leadership would be passed to another family line which supposedly lived in a neighboring village. The family that lived within the borders of this village apparently had ties with Van's great grandfather. Many of the council members had sensed deceit from the moment those words left Vlad's lips and predicted the worse for Van if he did not choose a bride within the allotted time frame.

Allen happened to be traveling to Fanelia on royal business with Gaddes and Dryden when he caught wind of the news. He figured that the best way to get Van's mind off of things was to invite him on a hunting trip with his friends. This is where the trouble began.

Vlad was already furious that Van was not taking initiative to set up a royal lineage and when he heard Allen make the suggestion of going on a hunting trip it seemed to tug at his last nerve of patience. "That's out of the question." He had hissed at the council meeting. Merle had had enough of Vlad smooth talking the council and proclaimed a 'Saet Vait' which had the effect of removing a shady council member from the palace on grounds of treason. Van admittedly could have kissed Merle for that political move.

Van could do nothing as the king, but as the royal advisor, Merle had the power to fire the head councilman with the majority vote from the rest of the council members. Most of the council anonymously agreed to get rid of the old nag on the grounds that he only had his own interests at heart.

Vlad and five other council members left that day, mainly because they supported the old wicked man, and also in part because he had shady dealings with them outside of council affairs. Six new members were added to the council and the action of Van finding a bride within a year was dropped, much to his relief.

Van and Allen decided to go on their hunting trip shortly after as celebration of their victory. Merle was given extra privileges to go into the palace kitchen for snacks, which in her mind made her political move the best thing she had ever done in her short career. While Van, Allen, Gaddes, and Dryden were away, Vlad had been cooking up a scheme to get back at Van and the other members of the council.

It happened that Van did not really have any other living family members and that Vlad was trying to get his own son, Charden, to take the throne. Charden looked enough like Van to pass as his cousin, save the fact that his hair was blond and he had the bluest eyes you could imagine. He was a strange positive copy of the dark noble king. Even Hitomi would have been startled at how similar the two looked save the color of their eyes, hair, and skin (Charden's skin was a sickly white color). Charden was just as wicked as his father despite his fair complexion.

He wanted Fanelia for selfish reasons and it wasn't beneath him to kill Van at his father's command to achieve this goal. However, he would rather do it politically to humiliate Van before his imminent death. With his father removed from the council this was not possible and it was giving him a terrible headache. "I want to kill Van NOW!" He had whined, holding a glass of Vino in his hands. His father had only grinned. "You will get the time soon, my son." That time came sooner than Van would have liked.

Vlad made sure that the five ex- council members followed Van and the others into the woods outside of Fanelia. The armed men had the intention of killing Van and his company without leaving a speck of evidence. This became apparent as they were setting up camp. Gaddes was the first to hear the branches breaking underneath the ex-councilmen's footsteps. Allen drew his sword next and Dryden followed suit. Van took out his royal sword and frowned.

Suddenly the men were ambushed. The ex-council members came at them swinging ropes and axes and other terrible weapons that were sure to cause damage to them. Van managed to strike down the first man and Allen struck down the second. Gaddes took down two other men and Dryden took out the last. The ex-council members lay dead at their feet and none of the men said a word. They stood there staring in disbelief at first and then the panic settled in.

If the people of Fanelia knew that Van had murdered his ex-council members in cold blood it could mean political upheaval or worse. Allen, Gaddes, and Dryden were sure to be found guilty as political conspirators and hung for their actions. The men had to think of something fast.

Van decided to bury the men in an inconspicuous location until they could think of what to do. Allen and the other two helped him carry out the task. They had just begun to think about the next step to take when something odd happened. Van's pendant (inherited from Hitomi) reacted and sent all of the men flying up in the air in a great pillar of light. They could not control their bodies as they were sucked up to the mystic moon and tossed into a sea of pines.

They landed harshly on the forest floor, their weapons tossed aside. Rubbing their sore areas they searched for their weapons and returned them to their belts. A few hours of wandering through the dense forest of the Mystic Moon had led them to their current position, out of breath, and each secretly hoping that they would find some sign of civilization before they died of thirst. All of their hunting gear had been left back on Gaea. The only items they had were the swords they had tucked back in the scabbards upon reaching the cursed planet.

They sat next to what appeared to be a road with strange yellow markings on it. Behind them was a strange sort of shack with a bench underneath and Mystic Moon writing above it. None of the men were sure what purpose it served but the overhang kept them cool long enough to contemplate their situation. Finally, Dryden broke the silence by clearing his throat.

"Well, without a proper way to get back we're just going to have to find a way to fit in until we do. It just so happens that in my studies I have learned a few Mystic Moon languages. This sign says, err...Buzz Stopee."

Allen wrinkled his nose.

"What the hell is a Buzz Stopee?"

Dryden shrugged.

"You've got me."

Gaddes looked up at the sign and marveled at the shape of the Mystic Moon letters.

"What kind of people go out and write weird stuff like that on a lean-to...or whatever this strange building is, anyway? I hope it's not some Mystic Moon curse."

Van let out a heavy sigh.

"Hitomi told me something about Buzz Stopees. I think you wait at them. Some magic machine picks you up and you ride them to your next location."

Allen raised one of his eyebrows.

"It sounds complicated. None of us have Mystic Moon powers like Hitomi. Can't you just get that necklace to take use back to Gaea?"

Van shook his head solemnly.

"I can only use it to project visions of myself to her. That is how we've kept in touch all of these years. If I could use it to transport myself to the Mystic Moon I would have done it in a heartbeat."

Dryden rubbed his chin deep in thought.

"You might have something there. Try contacting Hitomi. I'm sure that she will know how to get us out of this mess."

Van's eyes lit up momentarily. The thought of being able to talk to Hitomi...possibly in person...brightened his spirits.

"Alright, I will give it a shot."

Van closed his eyes and thought about Hitomi with all of his heart. Eventually, her small sweet image appeared before him. Van smiled and Gaddes leaned forward to get a better look and make sure he wasn't imagining things.

"Van, are you smiling? What are you so happy about?"

Van didn't answer. He was too happy and excited to speak. Hitomi smiled at him and gave his ghost image a long embrace.

"Van, you've come to see me again! I thought that you weren't going to talk to me until you got back from your hunting trip with the guys. I told you not to worry and have fun for a change!"

Van's ghost image held Hitomi for a few minutes but quickly pulled her away. The grave look in Van's eyes made Hitomi's smile fade.

"Hitomi, I am sorry that I am talking to you on such an urgent note but Allen, Gaddes, Dryden and I have been transported to the Mystic Moon. We don't know where we are but we seem to be under something called a Buzz Stopee. Is there any way that you can help us?"

Hitomi's eyes glazed over with fear.

"Oh Van, you could be any number of places! How did you get yourself into this mess?"

Van explained all about his confrontation with the council and his ill fated hunting trip. Hitomi's Frown became deeper.

"That's terrible! I can't believe that the men you were supposed to trust betrayed you like that! Well, the only thing to do is just...just wait for me, ok? I'm going to do a tarot reading and see if I can find you. Whatever you do, don't move!"

Van nodded and smiled at her reassuringly as he watched her fumble through her belongings to get out her tarot deck.

Meanwhile, Allen was watching Van's reactions to the imaginary person in front of him and was beginning to think he had gone mad. He had called out to him a dozen times and Van had refused to answer. He finally gave up and turned to Dryden for support.

"This is just perfect. We have one man out of his wits and the rest of us have no clue how we're supposed to get out of this mess. Do you have any advice? You're supposed to be the smartest man on Gaea. Now is your chance to prove it."

Dryden stole a look at Van and then glanced up at the sign.

"I think the best thing to do it wait here until that Buzz or whatever shows up. A machine is likely to have an operator that we can ask to help us find our way to Hitomi. If memory serves she lived in a place called...err...Jaypaan. We'll just ask when the Buzz operator shows up."

Gaddes gave a small huff.

"You mean YOU will ask. None of us here speaks this crazy language except for you. I just hope you know enough to get us off this rock."

Van was beginning to sway back and forth which had the other men worried. In his vision, Hitomi was throwing him a bunch of items to hold onto while she searched for her deck. Finally she managed to retrieve it from underneath a pile of socks and she took the other items out of Van's hands.

"There we go. I knew that I put my cards somewhere. I haven't used them since I returned to earth. I promised I wouldn't use them unless I absolutely had to. I think this definitely counts as an emergency."

Van watched Hitomi focus her energy into the deck and ask the cards where Van and her other companions had ended up. She concentrated hard and saw the image of her city's bus stop. Hitomi gasped and opened her eyes.

"Van, You are outside of Tokyo! I can't believe it. Ok...don't panic. I am going to grab my bus pass and meet you guys there. Whatever you do, DON'T MOVE!"

Van nodded and gave Hitomi a small hug before she grabbed the keys to her apartment, put on her backpack (which had her bus pass inside of it) and rushed out the door, almost forgetting to lock it on the way out. Van snapped back to reality and saw his friends giving him concerned looks.

Gaddes patted him on the back and said, "Man, what happened to you? Are you feeling alright?"

Van gave a curt nod in his direction.

"I'm fine. I was talking with Hitomi, like Dryden suggested I should. She says that she is on her way to pick us up as we speak."

Dryden did a small victory dance.

"What a relief. I knew the girl would come through for us. Let's just hope that she knows a way to get us off this miserable planet."

Allen nodded in agreement and Van frowned internally. He couldn't say he was happy that he had to meet Hitomi under these circumstances. A part of him had the terrible feeling that their time together would be brief. His first chance at seeing her in almost five years and he wouldn't even have time to talk to her about what had been going on in Fanelia or the rest of Gaea. This was shaping up to be the worst hunting trip that Van had ever had the misfortune of going on.


	2. Broken Promises

A Week in Tokyo

Chapter Two: Broken Promises

Hitomi stood at the bus stop under her apartment building holding her tarot cards closely to her chest. She was pacing back and forth frantically which made a few people sitting on the bench behind her shift uncomfortably in their seats.

"Why isn't the stupid bus here yet?" Hitomi thought to herself, feeling strangely like she was forgetting something important.

All at once it hit her like a ton of bricks. She WAS forgetting something. She had promised Yukari that she would meet her at the mall an hour ago and to help her pick out a cute outfit for her date with Amano later that evening.

"Darn; I need to call her." Hitomi suddenly said out loud.

She stopped pacing and placed her tarot cards in her pocket. She fumbled around in her backpack and stopped when she felt the familiar metallic object beneath her fingers. She pulled the blue object out from the front pocket of her backpack and flipped it open. She had one missed call. Hitomi sighed and dialed the number on the phone. It rung twice before Yukari picked up on the other end.

"Mushi Mushi?" Came an irritated voice from the other side of the cell.

"It's me Hitomi." She replied, shakily.

"Hitomi, where the heck have you been? I've been sitting inside Jenko's for at least an hour waiting for you to show up!"

Hitomi shifted nervously in her place. "I'm really sorry, Yuka; something came up. You're not going to believe this but...Van and the others are HERE."

There was a short pause before Yukari replied. Finally a shriek sounded on the other end and Yukari barked, "WHAT? Why didn't you tell me this earlier? How did this happen?"

Hitomi explained about the hunting trip and the council and Yukari listened intently throwing in a small confirmation every so often to let her know she was still on the line.

When Hitomi was finished, Yukari said, "I'm sorry that I got a bit miffed at you before. This is really big! You just worry about getting the guys back to the apartment. I'll call Amano and some other of my guy friends to get some clothes for Van and the others. If they're stuck here for a while they're gonna need to blend in."

Hitomi thanked Yukari for her help and glanced up just in time to catch site of the bus pulling up to the curb.

"Listen Yukari, the bus is here so I have to go. Just do what you can about the clothes and meet me at the apartment as soon as you can. I will make this up to you somehow. Ja Ne!"

Yukari gave a short goodbye before Hitomi shut her cell phone and hopped onto the bus. She showed the driver her pass and sat in the front seat. She took out her cards and told them to guide her to Van's location. His image immediately popped into her head and she drew in a deep breath. She was so excited at seeing her friends that she barely noticed the bus taking off toward the direction of her old High School.

She snapped back to reality and looked at the highlighted stops on the screen above her.

"Only five more stops until we are out of town...and close to Van."

Hitomi mused quietly to herself, as the bus lurched forward with the new passengers inside.


	3. The Bus Ride

A Week in Tokyo

Chapter Three: The Bus Ride

Gaddes was beginning to become impatient. It seemed like the four men had been waiting outside the strange neon hut forever. He turned to Van who was leaning against the side of the brightly colored shack staring tensely at the road.

"Are you sure that Hitomi told us to wait here? It seems like it's been a while since you talked to her last."

Van didn't take his eyes of the road when he said, "I trust whatever Hitomi tells me with my life. Just sit down and be patient. I know that she will come."

Gaddes sighed and sat on the bench underneath the oddly colored structure. Allen sat down beside him and nodded reassuringly.

"Van is right. I have never known Hitomi to lie. She is a woman of her word. I trust her with every fiber of my soul."

Dryden rolled his eyes.

"Sappy sentiments like that are not going to save us from starving to death...or dying from thirst. I sure hope you two aren't just blowing hot air."

Before either Van or Allen could reply a strange metal beast emerged from behind the steep hill where the road dropped off into the distance. Van stood up cautiously and placed his hand over the hilt of his sword. Allen and Gaddes rose from their seats and followed suit. Dryden stood back and prepared himself for battle.

The shining metal beast groaned as it came barreling up the street and Van gestured to the other men to fall back. They formed an attack pattern and crouched low to the ground as the beast crept up to the brightly painted shack. A large sound went off and the beast stopped in front of them. Just as the men were ready to attack, what appeared to be a large door on the side of it opened up and Hitomi came running down a flight of black stairs leading up to it massive frame.

All four men rose from the ground staring at the wailing metal beast and then Hitomi in disbelief. The awkwardness did not last long. Van placed his sword in its hilt and ran toward her. He embraced her in his arms and refused to let go. Allen and the others ran over and joined in on the excitement after tucking their own weapons away at their sides. Before Hitomi knew it she was hugging Allen, shaking Gaddes' hand, and getting patted on the shoulder by Dryden.

"It's so good to see you Hitomi," everyone seemed to say out of sync in their own individual way.

Hitomi beamed. She couldn't help herself. Even though the circumstances of the men coming to her world were not particularly cheerful, Hitomi was happy nonetheless that they were there. Being able to see her friends smiling faces after all of those years apart gave her a happiness that she had never known before. She had missed them all a lot. She realized this as she whipped a stray tear from her face. She suddenly remembered all of the nights she had gazed up at the stars and prayed that she would get a chance to visit with them someday in the future.

A twist of fate had somehow brought her friends to her world and had made her secret wish a reality. By the way her friends were smiling and bringing up fond memories of her visit to Gaea she knew that they felt the same way. Unfortunately, Hitomi didn't have much time to reminisce about the good times she had shared with her companions on the alternate world.

The whining of the bus pistons snapped her out of her happy state and brought her back to reality. A pang of anxiety formed in her chest as she realized that the public transport device could take off at any moment. Hitomi got her friend's attention by waving her hands in front of their faces. When she saw that the four men were paying attention, she pointed toward the bus with one hand and drew out a bunch of change from a small pocket on the side of her backpack with the other.

She said in an urgent tone, "I'm sorry to cut our meeting short but we have to go. You guys get on the Bus and I will make sure you are paid for. Hurry up before it leaves!"

Before any of the men could comment, Hitomi pushed each one up the stairs leading to the inside the metallic beast and led them to a row of seats near the front. The men sat down in the plush neon seats a bit shakily. None of them were quite sure what to expect as they sat fidgeting in their cushioned seats. Hitomi turned around to pay their fare and flashed her pass at the bus driver who gave her an annoyed grunt in response.

She took a seat next to Van when she was finished paying for her friends' bus fares and smiled up at him. After years of being apart she was finally able to sit at his side. They spent a while looking into each other's eyes and nothing else. The other men remained silent as the bus took off from the neon shack and sped toward their desired location.

On the trip to Hitomi's apartment Allen stared out the window with a combination of awe and fear written on his face. Gaddes and Dryden had similar looks as they watched the scenery loom in close to the bus and then disappear before their eyes in a flash. A conversation was eventually struck up between them about the unusual Mystic Moon device. Dryden seemed to be arguing for the usefulness of a machine like that in Asturia while Gaddes and Allen continued to promptly disagree with each of the crazy ideas for building the weird contraption that Dryden brought up.

Van was too busy gazing into Hitomi's soft green eyes to notice the men arguing in the row across from him. He studied every detail of Hitomi's face before he finally got up the courage to hold his beloved's hand in his own. Van's small gesture of kindness made Hitomi's heart flutter with joy. Van blushed as he watched Hitomi's smile grow larger than it had been before.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, the two started a friendly conversation about their favorite things as well as their favorite places to go in their respective worlds. Van learned that Hitomi's favorite color was blue, she loved roses (especially white ones), she liked vanilla more than chocolate, and that she liked to go jogging around her neighborhood. Hitomi learned that Van like the color green (much to her surprise), he loved to practice fencing, he liked the occasional glass of vino, and he enjoyed going horseback riding in the Fanelian countryside.

Eventually the bus pulled up to the neon stop in front of Hitomi's apartment complex where she had set out on the odd rescue mission only an hour or so before. The bus made a few awkward noises and then came to an abrupt stop. Hitomi cut her conversation with Van short to announce to her friends that they had arrived at their place of travel. The other men ceased talking and rose from their seats. She stood up from her own seat, letting go of Van's hand in the process. A look of disappointment washed over his face as Hitomi pointed toward the exit and then led each her companions off of the bus in a tour guide like fashion.

Her actions attracted a few odd stares from the passengers sitting in the rows behind her. She thought she heard one of the teenagers mention something about ridding in a bus full of cosplayers to one of his friends as she made her way down the black staircase. When the group was safely off the bus, she guided them up the stairs that led to her apartment building. She fumbled around in her backpack's left pocket for her keys as she gave a quick history of the apartment building to her friends. When they reached the top of the staircase she gestured toward her apartment door with her keys in hand.

"Here we are everyone, at good old apartment 105!"

The men stared at the odd green door with a string of brass symbols nailed to it that they assumed matched the number Hitomi had just mentioned. Van thought it was odd that inhabitants of the Mystic Moon gave names to their living quarters as Hitomi stuck her apartment key in the lock and turned it slowly to the right.


	4. A Change of Clothes

A Week in Tokyo

Chapter Four: A Change of Clothes

Hitomi opened the door to reveal a living room with a single couch and a few pieces of furniture placed awkwardly around it. Beyond the living room was an archway that led to a room that looked like a kitchen. The living room led to two halls. One hall stretched to the left and the other stretched to the right.

The first had a door which led to a room at the end of it and a bathroom just before you got to the door of the room. The second hallway on the other end had a door that lead to a closet and another door at the end that led to a second room. The apartment was disorganized (there were books and articles of clothing all over the living room floor) but at the same time it looked comfortable.

Hitomi gestured for the men to sit on the white couch resting against the far left wall of the living room as she hurried about picking up articles of clothing, wrappers, books, and other strange Mystic Moon items from her living room floor. The man sat down on the long couch and watched as Hitomi tossed all of her misplaced items through the open door of her room.

Dryden began chatting with his friends about all of the Mystic Moon devices he could take back to Gaea and sell for a considerable price. Gaddes rolled his eyes and Allen shook his head as Hitomi began cleaning her bedroom floor. Van wasn't sure what the men had been discussing earlier to warrant such an odd reaction but he decided it was best to stay out of it.

Hitomi emerged from her room a few minutes later with a nervous look on her face. Dryden stopped talking as soon she walked toward the group of men and plopped on the floor in front of them.

Hitomi smiled apologetically and said, "I'm really sorry about the mess. I'm so busy with my University work these days that I really don't pay attention to the chores. Yukari yells at me about it all of the time."

Allen smiled.

"Don't worry about it, Hitomi. How could you have known we would show up today? We are just grateful that you were able to find us."

Van nodded gravely.

"I really don't know what we would have done if you hadn't come to rescue us. We owe you one."

Hitomi blushed.

"It's not a big deal, really. You guys are my friends. I will always be here to lend you guys a hand if you need one."

Dryden stared at Hitomi in silence. For the first time all day he was doing his best to look serious.

"Hitomi, I know this is sudden, but does the Mystic Moon have any devices that can help us get back to Gaea? It's urgent that we straighten things out with the council in Fanelia before things get any worse."

Hitomi bit her lip.

"I'm really sorry Dryden. On earth we don't have drag-energists. We don't have portals or any of the other magical items that are on Gaea. We don't even have dragons. It was really a fluke that I was sent to Gaea in the first place. I know that my pendent probably helped a little, but I don't think pillars of light spring up without some kind of help from dragons or energists. At least, I don't think they do from what I learned when I was there."

Gaddes' mouth promptly fell open.

"You mean that we are stuck on this weird planet until we can find some way to make your...or rather Van's...pendant work? Just how are we going to do that?"

Hitomi shook her head.

"I really don't know. In the meantime, I'll make sure that you guys are taken care of. I called Yukari earlier. She is going to bring some clothes so you will all blend in."

Allen was about to ask what Hitomi meant by that when the doorbell of her apartment rang.

"Ah! That must be Yukari now."

Hitomi rose from her place on the ground and opened the door. Yukari came running in holding a large duffel bag in her arms. Hitomi closed the door behind her as Yukari squealed with delight. The Gaean men looked at her curiously as she began sizing them up in her mind. Hitomi walked over to Yukari and put her arm on her shoulder.

"This is my best friend Yukari who I've known since high school. She rents this apartment with me. We both go to Tokyo University."

Van smiled politely.

"It's nice to meet you Yukari."

The other men nodded in agreement. Yukari stared at Van with a look of confusion on her face.

All she had heard the young man say was something like, "Hearm gotal leachan, Yukari."

She turned to look at Hitomi, wide eyed.

"What did that guy just say?"

Hitomi took her arm off of Yukari's shoulder and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Didn't you hear? Van says that he is happy to meet you."

Yukari frowned.

"It just sounded like a bunch of gibberish to me."

Dryden raised his eyebrow.

"What are you girls talking about? I can only understand a few words. My Mystic Moon vocabulary isn't that big, you know."

Hitomi's arms fell to her side. All at once it occurred to her that she was the only one that could understand her companions. This would make having the men fit in more complicated than she had originally thought.

"Um, I just told Yukari what Van said. She doesn't understand your language. The good news is that she brought you some clothes. Let's take a look at what she brought!"

Yukari gave Hitomi a funny look.

The only thing she had heard was something like, "Err, shen qubel Yukari ke Van sem. Hem ne suours ne whum urga. Chen brun flaut agant."

She was surprised when Hitomi snatched the duffel bag from her arms.

"Hey! You could have warned me or something."

Hitomi placed the duffel bag on the floor and began to ruffle through it.

"I did! Didn't you hear me tell them...oh that's right. I'm sorry, Yuka. I keep forgetting that you don't speak Gaean."

Yukari rolled her eyes as Hitomi pulled out a pair of jeans and blue tee-shirt that looked like they would fit Allen. She placed it in a neat pile by her side. Next she pulled out a red polo and a pair of Jeans that looked like it would fit Van. She placed it next to Allen's clothes. The next to come out was a white tank, a green over shirt, and a pair of jeans that looked like they would fit Dryden. The last articles of clothing were a brown hooded and a pair of jeans that looked like they would fit Gaddes.

The men watched Hitomi pull the clothes out of the bag in silence. None of them were quite sure what to make of the mess of clothes in front of them.

Yukari stared at the outfits and beamed.

"Aren't these clothes perfect? The best news is that the guys don't have to give them back. Amano and his roommates were going through their old stuff a few days ago. They were just going to donate these clothes to charity anyway. There are enough pairs of clothes in there for at least a week."

Hitomi smiled up at Yukari.

"Thank you, Yuka. You are the best!"

Yukari grinned.

"I know. You don't have to tell me that. For now, let's just get these guys in some decent clothing. We'll be in big trouble if someone sees them like this."

Hitomi nodded and turned toward her friends sitting on the couch.

"Ok listen everyone; what you are wearing kind of stands out so I need you to change into some clothes that Yukari brought for you to wear. It's only temporary until we can find a way to get you back to your world."

All four men groaned in protest.

Allen piped in, "What is so funny about the way we are dressed?"

Hitomi scratched her head nervously and replied, "Well, you guys will just really stand out in what you are wearing. No one on earth dresses like that anymore unless they are going to a renaissance fair or an anime convention. People might think you are cosplayers if you go out of the house looking like that."

Allen wasn't sure what a 'cosplayer' was but it sounded like a negative term possibly used from a male prostitute. He didn't want to be thought of as being impure so he stood up from the couch and gestured for Hitomi to hand him some articles of clothing. Hitomi picked up the jeans and blue tee-shirt and handed them to Allen.

"I'll just slip into these then. Uh...Where can I change?"

Hitomi pointed toward the bathroom down the left hall.

"You can change in the first room down that way."

Allen nodded and went to change into his new outfit.

Hitomi handed the remaining outfits to her three other guests.

"Ok Van, you can change in Yukari's room. It's the room at the very end of the hall that Allen just walked down. Gaddes, you can change in the closet down the right hall (it's really big, you'll have plenty of space), and Dryden, you can change in my room which is at the very end of the right hall. Just remember to face all your clothes the right way."

The men got up from the couch and turned the strange Mystic Moon clothing garments over in their hands as they went to their respective changing quarters. Yukari watched after them in fascination with a strange look plastered on her face.

"I sure hope that those guys know which way to face their clothes. The things they are wearing right now are pretty wild. Does everyone in Gaea dress this way?"

Hitomi chuckled at Yukari's comment and nodded up at her friend.

"Yeah, pretty much. I had to dress like that when I was there too. I don't know how the girls walk around with those big dresses. I could barely stand moving around in the dress they gave me in Asturia for one day!"

Yukari wrinkled her nose.

"I imagine. You couldn't pay me enough money to dress in that fancy western clothing. Did they make you wear girly stuff like that the entire time?"

Hitomi shook her head.

"No, just that one time when I was in Asturia. The rest of the time I wore my regular school clothes or track wear. Everyone thought I was boy because of it."

Yukari burst out laughing.

"What a strange place. I always thought things here were pretty strict concerning the way women dressed. I stand corrected. Those people would have a field day if I was transported to that planet."

Hitomi giggled. She pictured Yukari stomping around, being her usual bossy, assertive self to all of the royalty families of the world. An image of a prince like Van proposing to Yukari and Yuka telling him to dream on because she has a hot stud of a boyfriend on the Mystic Moon shot into her mind. Yukari saw Hitomi's amused expression and began to pout.

"What, you don't believe me? I would be kicking the butt of every so called knight on that world with my mad fencing skills."

Hitomi grinned as she watched her friend make fencing motions in the air.

"I believe you, Yukari. Trust me, I do."

Yukari stared at her with a frown on her face that slowly wavered into a large grin and the two cracked up shortly after. They got so caught up in talking about Gaean customs that neither girl noticed the bathroom door slide open. The creek in one of floorboards let the girls know that someone was coming down the hallway.

Allen was the first to emerge carrying his old clothes in his hands. He had managed to get his jeans on properly and his tee-shirt on the correct way. His sword was at the top of the pile. He handed the mound of clothing to Hitomi who placed the garments on the floor by the duffel bag.

He pulled at his tee shirt uncomfortably as the two girls stared at him practically drooling all over themselves.

Yukari turned to Hitomi and said, "Oh Hitomi, he's just like a supermodel! I can see why you fell for this hunk in the first place. What a hottie!"

Hitomi nodded slowly and mentally kicked herself for thinking that way about Allen when she had already confessed her undying love for Van.

Allen tugged at his jeans and shifted in his place uncomfortably. He couldn't figure out for the life of him why the two young women were stealing glances in his direction and giggling. He assumed that the Mystic Moon getup made him look horrible.

He muttered, "Look, there is nothing I can do about it. You said I had to blend in right? I'm sorry that it doesn't become me."

Hitomi stared at the hot man before her at a loss for words. His statement couldn't be further from the truth.

After thinking of the right words to say that wouldn't make her sound like too much of an obsessed fan girl she casually said, "Allen, you have it all wrong. Yukari and I were staring at you because we thought you look very natural in your clothing. You will fit in for sure!"

This made Allen feel a little better and he stopped stretching out the material of his tee-shirt when he saw her reassuring smile. Down the hall to the right the two girls heard another door open.

The next to walk into the living room wearing the red polo shirt and Jeans was Van in all of his hunkish Fanelian glory. He piled his mound of clothing and sword on top of Allen's. He seemed just as uncomfortable in his new outfit. He pulled at his shirt with his ungloved hands. This made him look even sexier in Hitomi's opinion.

Yukari and Hitomi gushed more over Van than they had over the previous contestant in their imaginary fashion show. They spent a few minutes squealing girl phrases at each other which did not make Van feel any more confident.

Yukari broke the squeal fest by practically yelling, "OMG, he's such a hottie when you put him in real clothing! I mean he looked ok in the other stuff but these clothes really bring out the color in his eyes!"

Hitomi blushed and nodded shyly.

"Yeah, I think he looks really handsome too."

Yukari gave Hitomi a look like she didn't understand her and Hitomi placed her hands over her mouth in embarrassment. She felt her breath go short. Had she just done what she thought she had?

Hitomi looked over at Allen who shrugged and gave her a confused look. She let out a breath of relief. Of course she didn't say it in Gaean. She couldn't have said it. If she had said her awkward comment in the foreign language Allen would have understood her. She was about to gush over Van with Yukari some more when he walked up beside her.

He leaned in close and said in almost a whisper, "I don't know where you learned Fanelian but thank you for saying that I am attractive in my native tongue. That really means a lot to me. I don't feel so bad about wearing this now."

Hitomi turned at least five different shades of red as Yukari and Allen stared at her with puzzled looks on their faces. Van smiled to himself and walked over to Allen with a look of amusement painted on his lips. Allen would have liked to wipe the smug grin off of Van's face (he somehow got the impression that the girls thought the red-eyed prince looked better in his Mystic Moon clothing than he did in his own) when the group heard two more doors open in unison.

Gaddes and Dryden stepped out together. When they journeyed into the living room their outfits made Hitomi and Yukari giggle uncontrollably. Gaddes' hooded sweater was on backwards, as was Dryden's green over shirt. Yukari walked over and fixed Dryden's over shirt while Hitomi helped Gaddes turn his hooded sweatshirt in the right direction.

When the two men were dressed the two girls stood back and admired their work.

Yukari placed her fingers in the shape of a square that framed the two men.

She squinted through the middle of her fingers like a photographer through a lens when she mentioned, "You know, Dryden looks really sexy in Jeans. I don't know how to feel about Gaddes though. He's not really my type."

Hitomi laughed.

"Yeah, I think you are right. Gaddes is a little too rough around the edges to be hot, but Dryden could be the next season's pin up. Even so you have to admit if you put all of the men together they look like a bunch of celebrities."

Yukari squealed at the revelation leaving the four men to stare at the girl's reaction in utter confusion.

Hitomi laughed nervously and translated falsely, "Yukari just wants you to know that you are all going to blend in fine. I'm just going to out your other clothes away now. Don't mind me!"

Hitomi ignored the scrutinizing stares that the four men were giving her as she gathered all of their clothes from the floor and walked toward the closet. She walked through open doorway and placed all of the clothes and weapons at the far end of the storage space.

She then walked over to the living room and picked up the duffel bag. She slung it over her shoulder and walked toward the closet with it secured tightly on her back. She let it slip of her shoulder and drop on the floor when she reached the small storage space. She didn't take the same time or care of placing it neatly away like she had done with the other clothing items and weapons.

"We're bound to pull this out again. No need to hide it."

Hitomi thought to herself as she talked out of the closet empty handed.

The men were all leaning against the counter giving her amused smiles when she emerged. Hitomi stared at them like a deer caught in the headlights.

"What's going on? Why are you all staring at me like that?"

Gaddes winked.

"Oh no reason, really. We just know your little secret. What was that she said, Dryden? Something about being handsome in our Mystic Moon clothing? Or was it that we look like celebrities?"

Hitomi turned redder than when Van had caught her talking about him before. She flashed an astonished look at Dryden, who gave her a smirk in reply.

"You look surprised Hitomi. Why don't you tell me what's on your mind."

Hitomi stared at Dryden with her mouth open for a few minutes and then squeaked, "I thought you couldn't understand my language very well."

At that moment she wanted to crawl under some rock and wither away.

Dryden gave a short laugh.

"I told you that I can't understand your language very well. That doesn't mean I can't piece some things together. You can blame all of the romance literature that gets sucked into Gaea from your realm. I know almost all of my earth vocabulary from them. Well technically speaking I've also learned a few languages from various other fiction pieces in my extensive library but the romance novels are the best educators."

Hitomi watched Van give her a warm smile and Allen raise one of his eyebrows waiting for an answer. Hitomi avoided their looks and tried to think of a way out of explaining her actions. She finally decided it was best to change the subject all together.

The men were disappointed when Hitomi said, "Well...now that everyone is dressed properly we can figure out a way to get you home. We should come up with a game plan don't you think?"

She laughed nervously and walked over to the couch. She plopped down on it and gestured for Yukari to sit next to her. The red head obeyed and looked at the men and then Hitomi with a curious look on her face. She obviously had no idea what was going on.

The four men remained standing next to the kitchen counter. They grinned at her in a teasing manner and let the words fall on deaf ears. They were obviously milking her embarrassment as long as they could manage. Only Van seemed distracted. His gaze was distant and sad. When his eyes met Hitomi's she felt her chest tighten. What had she said to make him look at her that way?


	5. The Power Spot

A Week in Tokyo

Chapter Five: The Power Spot

Van continued to look at Hitomi with a hint of sadness in his eyes. He knew that he had to return to Gaea and set things straight with his council but a part of him wanted to stay with her, as selfish as the thought was. He didn't like the fact that Hitomi was so willing to send him back to his own world. Even if that wasn't what she had meant to say and was just trying to save herself from further embarrassment, the words still hurt.

Hitomi saw the strain on Van's face and gave him a look of concern.

"Van, are you alright?"

Van forced a weak smile.

"Yeah, I was just thinking of a way that we could get back to Gaea without a proper portal or energist."

Van felt like the most horrible man in both worlds for lying to Hitomi but he didn't want to burden her with his own insecurities. He managed to keep a straight face as the other men started to realize the gravity of the situation they were in.

Allen stopped teasing Hitomi and focused on the seriousness of the issue much to the young woman's relief.

"Van is right. Without a power spot we have little chance of getting back to our world. This is quite a situation we have gotten ourselves into."

Gaddes groaned. He had forgotten all about the teasing and was starting to feel sick to his stomach.

"As much as I like catching up with the little lady, I can't stay here forever. Can't you do something about this, Dryden? If you can figure out Mystic Moon languages surely you've heard something about the power spots here."

Dryden ran his fingers through his hair nonchalantly. The look in his eyes showed that he wasn't ready to give up causing trouble just yet. Then again, Dryden always had the look of someone who was ready to cause some kind of mischief. It was as if he believed that the sole purpose of his birth was to test the patience of men and women alike.

"Oh course I have heard of Mystic Moon legends. That's all you hear when you go trading as far north as I do. In fact, I think that I remember one about power spots."

Gaddes leaned forward expectantly.

"That's great! Then tell us what you remember!"

Dryden adjusted the pair of small sunglasses that rested on his nose. It was almost like he was purposely trying to draw out the suspense. Hitomi frowned. She was still mad at Dryden for the stunt he had pulled earlier.

She cleared her throat and said rather coolly, "Dryden, it's not nice to keep us waiting. Please just tell us what you know."

Dryden let out a heavy sigh.

"You people really are no fun at all. Alright, I'll tell you. I was just trying to get all of you to loosen up. Sheesh."

Dryden ignored Van's annoyed grunt and continued on.

"If I'm not mistaken, I think that there is some legend about power spots on The Mystic Moon. Let's see if I can remember."

Dryden rubbed his temples for a few moments with his eyes closed. His eyes shot open and he brought up one of his hands in pointing fashion in front of his face when he remembered the old poem he had heard on Gaea.

"That's it! I remember. There was an old verse that I read in a text book. It went, 'At the poles of earth you will find, two power spots hidden away by time, In the west you will find one in the sea, by a place called Bermuda, where the mermaids sing, and in the east a power spot rests in the sky, atop a mountain they call Chōkai.' If we could find one of those power spots, I am sure that we could use the pendant to transport us back to Gaea."

Yukari didn't understand a word of what was being said but when she heard Chōkai her eyes lit up like an oil lamp.

"Did your friend just say Chōkai as in Mount Chōkai? I've always wanted to go there! I think it's somewhere in the Akita prefectures, in the northern part of Japan. I learned about it in one of my classes last semester. I was so stoked because I heard all sorts of stories about it from my grandma when I was small."

Yukari rattled off facts she had learned about Mount Chōkai in her geography class like it being the second tallest mountain in the Tōhoku region of Japan and it standing 2,236 meters tall.

She ended by saying, "Mount Chōkai is regarded as sacred by followers of the Shugendō branch of Shinto and is popular with hikers. It is one of the 100 famous mountains in Japan."

Hitomi translated what Yukari had said into Gaean. Dryden gave a hearty laugh.

"That's perfect! We can go to Mount Chōkai and find a way to use the power spot to our advantage."

Allen and Gaddes looked thankful that they had found a way to get home. Van was wearing a heavy frown though his face showed some sign of relief. Yukari felt the tension in the room ease up a bit but she was still confused about what was going on.

"Why did your friend talk about that mountain anyway? I mean, if that is even what your friend was talking about. Come to think about it, how to the people of Gaea even know about Japanese mountain ranges?"

Hitomi recited the poem to Yukari and explained a little about how power spots worked. Yukari clapped her hands together in excitement.

"We've got summer break coming up in a week. We could take the guys to the mountain then. I think it's only a fourteen hour drive from Tokyo."

Hitomi translated what Yukari had suggested but the men did not seem to share her excitement.

Gaddes frowned.

"What are we supposed to do for a week while we wait?"

Hitomi felt a knot form in her stomach. She hadn't thought about that small detail until then. She glanced at Yukari with a look of worry on her face.

"What are we supposed to do while we wait for school to get out? We can't just send Van and the others off to look for that mountain on their own. They're bound to get into some kind of trouble without you or me as their guide."

Yukari rubbed her chin deep in thought.

Finally she said, "I guess we'll have to play it by ear. If anyone comes over we will just say that Van and the others are exchange students from the Netherlands that we met at school. That will explain why they don't speak Japanese."

Yukari caught sight of a small black framed clock hanging on the far kitchen wall and gasped.

"Crud, I told Amano that I would meet him in the Akihabara district a half hour ago! When I went to his apartment earlier we decided to have an early dinner. We're just going to have to figure this out later. I'm sorry Hitomi."

Yukari rose from the couch and ran into her bedroom. She closed the door momentarily making a lot of crashing sounds in the process. She slipped into a small black dress and put on a pair of matching shoes. She grabbed a small black purse from the top of her nightstand and emerged from her bedroom wearing her new outfit.

Outwardly flustered, she flung her purse over her left shoulder and ran toward the front door desperately trying to straighten her frazzled hair. She rested her free hand on the doorknob of the apartment and glanced back at Hitomi.

Before she left she said, "I'll talk to Amano about this. I'm sure that he'll help us think of something. I'll see you later!"

Yukari ran out the door leaving Van, Dryden, Gaddes, and Allen even more confused than when they'd desperately been trying to understand what the two girls had been talking about before.

Hitomi looked up at her companions and smiled sheepishly.

"Yukari had to go out for a while but she'll be back soon. We weren't able to come up with a plan just yet but I'm sure we'll think of something when she gets back. Now that I think of it, while you guys are here, Yukari and I can show you the town. You just have to promise to stick by us when we take you to see the different places. Today I think that we should lay low and hang out at the apartment. There's more to do here than you might think. I'll start off by fixing you all something to eat."

None of the men objected to the idea of being fed. Hitomi rose from the couch and walked toward the kitchen. Her eyes casually met Van's. She didn't know whether or not it was her imagination but they looked even sadder than they had been before. Van noticed that Hitomi was giving him a worried look and he tried to bring himself around.

He smiled with every ounce of affection he had for her and asked, "Do you want me to help you with dinner?"

Hitomi felt her heart dance inside her chest. It something about the genuine smile that Van gave her that made her feel like her body could defy gravity and float away. Van saw Hitomi blush a little on the edges of her cheeks, which lightened his mood a bit.

Hitomi finally said, "It's alright Van. Thank you for offering but I'm actually really good at cooking, especially when I use the the microwave."

Van didn't know what a microwave was but the fact that Hitomi was such a good cook made him smile in spite of himself.


	6. The Atlantis Pendant

A Week In Tokyo

Chapter Six: The Atlantis Pendant

Hitomi set to work finding something in the fridge to feed her companions with. Van didn't want his love to do all of the cooking by herself so he offered to help. He had asked her earlier if she needed any help in the kitchen but she had refused his offer. He was hoping that Hitomi would change her mind. He was disappointed when Hitomi shook her head.

"I'm fine, Van. Don't worry about me. I can manage on my own."

She pointed toward a blue dining room table that rested at the far end of the kitchen and gestured for him to take a seat in one of the light blue chairs surrounding it.

"You go sit at the table and wait for me to finish. I'll be done in no time!"

Van sighed and reluctantly left Hitomi to carry out the task alone. When Van settled down in his chair Hitomi politely instructed Gaddes, Allen, and Dryden to take a seat in the remaining blue chairs that circled the table beside him.

The men took their places around the table and watched as Hitomi pulled five microwavable burritos out of a tall, white storage device. The men eyed it suspiciously when they felt a burst of cool air escape from the open door. Hitomi explained that the device was called a refrigerator and that it stayed cold so the food inside of it would keep for longer periods of time.

Dryden was the only one who seemed to think that the device could prove to be useful on Gaea with a few minor alterations to its design. Everyone else was a bit intimidated by the odd contraption. The four men wondered if there was a single person on Hitomi's planet that didn't rely on weird inventions like buses or fridges to help them carry out everything from the simplest to the most complex tasks in their daily lives. Judging by all of the people they had seen carrying some type of futuristic device during the bus ride to Hitomi's apartment the men had their doubts.

Hitomi carried the stack of burritos out of the fridge and set them next to a small white box on the counter. She closed the refrigerator door and then pressed a series of buttons on the side of the small white machine she had set the burritos next to. She opened the door of the curious device and stuck the first burrito in. She closed the door and pressed another button on the right. It hummed loudly as it turned the package around inside of it. A string of unusual Mystic Moon symbols were flashing in a tiny box that rested on the top right-hand corner of the machine. Dryden rubbed his chin thoughtfully and watched in awe as the contraption spun the packaged item around in a large circle.

"What kind of machine is that?"

Hitomi chuckled as she pulled a stack of paper plates out of a nearby cabinet.

"It's not that big of a deal, really. It's just a microwave. It cooks your food for you."

The men watched Hitomi place the tower of white plates on the counter next to the burritos in silence. Gaddes began to fidget in his chair. He felt a bit uncomfortable. He had never seen so many weird machines in his entire life. First there was that box that could somehow keep food cold even though he didn't recall seeing any ice in it and now there was an odd appliance that cooked food for you. He didn't like it one bit.

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat when he said, "I thought that you said people on the Mystic Moon didn't use magic."

The microwave came to a halt and made an awful beeping noise that made Allen cover his ears. Hitomi propped the door of the microwave open in order to let the first burrito cool.

"We don't. We have technology. Inventors come up with all sorts of things for people to use. The inventions are powered by electricity that comes from different sources. Electricity is similar to the energists on your world. It powers appliances like fridges and microwaves as well as other various machines."

Hitomi reached into the microwave and pulled out the first burrito. She placed it on the first paper plate and handed it to Gaddes.

"Try a bit. I think you will like it!"

Gaddes grabbed the plate from Hitomi who promptly turned around and set to work microwaving the next burrito. He sat the plate in front of him and eyed the strange food item. The plate it was resting on was unusually light. He wondered if all Mystic Moon dinnerware was made of the strange material as he stared at the burrito curiously. He poked the burrito with his index finger and then shot a wary glance in Hitomi's direction.

"I think I will wait until the others get theirs." He muttered, as he tried to figure out how one went about eating the mysterious dish.

Hitomi shrugged and set to work microwaving the rest of the burritos one by one. Before long everyone had a plate in front of them. The men were giving the odd Mystic Moon cuisine uncertain looks.

Hitomi sat in-between Van and Allen. She placed her paper dish on the table and smiled.

"There! Now we can all pig out."

Van watched Hitomi bring the weird food to her lips and take a large bite. She chewed it with a pleasant look on her face. Allen picked up the strange food and took a bite himself. He chewed the morsel slowly, taking time to appreciate its unique flavor. The other men watched his reaction intently. They were curious to see how the knight would react to the foreign dish. They were surprised when Allen swallowed the bite without any difficulty.

A look of surprise washed across his face and his eyes momentarily lit up when he said, "Hey, this stuff isn't half bad."

Allen took another bite and the men felt confident enough to dig into their own dishes. It didn't take long for the men to finish their meal. The burritos were fairly large but they didn't stand a lick of chance against the appetites of four grown men. While the odd cuisine was very different from the types of dishes the men were used to eating on Gaea, the men thought the burritos were tasty nonetheless.

When the meal was finished Hitomi got a stack of plastic cups out of one of the kitchen cabinets and poured each of the men a glass of Hawaiian Punch. She had found a large bottle of the red drink in the fridge when she was looking for something to fix her friends. The men eyed the drink suspiciously. It looked similar to vino but it didn't appear to be an alcoholic beverage from the smell. Van didn't want to offend Hitomi so he was the first to take a swig. He downed it in one gulp which made everyone tense up in their seats.

They waited a few minutes as if they expected Van to turn into a weird creature on account of some unexplainable Mystic Moon curse mixed into the red liquid. Van seemed to be all right much to their relief. In fact he had enjoyed the drink so much that he politely asked Hitomi for another glass. When they were certain that they wouldn't get some kind of curse from drinking the red liquid, the men tried a sample of the beverage from their own cups. They all agreed that the strange drink tasted heavenly.

It was a sweet drink and that gave one a strange fizzing sensation in the mouth. Hitomi explained that the fizzy drink was made from a process called carbonation. The men didn't really understand what carbon was or why Mystic Moon residents liked to put it in their beverages but no one could deny that the drink tasted unlike anything they had ever sampled in their lives. A conversation was eventually struck up as the men sipped the unusual Mystic Moon beverage.

Gaddes was the first to speak up. He wanted to apologize in his own way for not trusting Hitomi enough to eat the Mystic Moon cuisine before. He broke the silence by asking, "So is the girl you rent this apartment with the friend that you talked about while you were on Gaea?"

Hitomi nodded.

"Yeah, she is. I'm really surprised you remembered something like that. I guess I must have talked about her a lot when I was on your world. I'm really sorry. It's just that Yukari and I have been best friends since Middle School. I missed her terribly while I was away."

Dryden placed one of his hands in front of him and waved it dismissively.

"It's alright, Hitomi. You don't have to apologize. Yukari seems like a nice girl. I am glad that you have a friend like her to rely on when we are away."

Everyone nodded and Van smiled. He felt like the happiest man on earth to be learning more about the woman he loved.

After a short pause in the conversation he decided to ask, "How did you two meet?"

Hitomi chuckled.

"It's kind of a funny story, actually. You see, Yukari and I met each other in middle school because we both had a crush on the same guy who was in our history class. Of course, we both didn't know it at the time."

Van's smile faded and Hitomi blushed when she realized what she had said.

A few moments of silence passed between them. Neither one quite knew what to say.

Van finally straightened himself in his chair and tried not to sound too jealous when he said, "Oh, I see. He must have been a nice guy to capture your interest like that."

Gaddes didn't notice the tension between them and asked rather hastily, "Who was the guy you both had a crush on?"

Hitomi saw the look on Van's face when Gaddes asked the question and she felt her heart sink. She hadn't thought that a casual subject like her first crush would have made him so upset.

Van took a sip of his beverage and waited patiently for a reply. The other men were just as eager to hear the story and remained silent.

Hitomi cleared her throat and replied cautiously, "Well, Yukari and I both liked her current boyfriend, Amano."

Van nearly spit out his Hawaiian punch. Allen snickered. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Allen gave Hitomi his most charming smile and said, "Really, Hitomi? That's fascinating. Do go on."

Van gave Allen a death glare as he held his hand over his mouth to make sure he would swallow the red liquid he had nearly met his end on.

Hitomi laughed nervously and said, "Oh Allen, it's not really that big of a deal. Both of us thought that Amano was cool so we gave each other support when we asked him to be our friend. The three of us have been inseparable ever since. When we asked Amano to be our friend we both assumed that the other one saw him as being cool. We both secretly had a crush on him though. Yukari noticed my crush in high school and told me to take the initiative. I gathered up a lot of courage and asked Amano Sempai if he would give me a kiss if I could beat the time of my pendant swinging thirteen times. He agreed and that's when I met Van for the first time."

Dryden was giving an amused look to Van who had gone very pale.

He winked at Hitomi and said, "So thanks to this Amano guy, you met Van in the first place. I guess that Van should be thanking him for introducing you two. Isn't that right your majesty?"

Van frowned. He didn't want to thank some past love interest of Hitomi's for capturing her heart before he did. If looks could kill his glare would have already sliced Dryden and Allen in two. His death glare moved from the blond haired knight the brown haired merchant. Dryden. Van looked at the smug expression on his face and felt something tugging at his last nerves.

Van grunted and was clearly annoyed when he said, "You mean the way you should be thanking Allen for dating Millerna for an entire a year before the two of you got married for the second time?"

Gaddes put his left hand casually over his eyes. This conversation was going to get interesting very quickly and he wasn't sure he liked the direction it was headed.

Allen turned up his nose.

"Well, I wouldn't say it is completely the same. I at least dated Princess Millerna first. We do not even know whether or not Hitomi ever dated her first crush."

Hitomi felt the tension in the room rise. She cursed herself for ever bringing up the topic.

She continued meekly, "Um, Allen is right. I never dated Amano because I realized that there was someone that I loved more."

She did her best to put as much feeling into the last words as possible. Her heart sank further when she didn't see a change in Van's expression.

Van muttered in an irritated voice, "After all of this time I still see that you're siding with Allen. But he was your second crush after all. That leaves me in last place as usual."

Hitomi's hurt quickly turned to anger.

"You don't know how I feel at all, Van. I said that Amano was just a crush. For your information, Amano and Yukari are dating because I KNEW that she loved him when I returned to the Mystic Moon. I was willing to give that idea up because I respected her and also because...because I loved you!"

Hitomi let the last words roll off of her tongue without thinking. Everyone at the table was staring at her in shock. Van had turned beet red.

Gaddes couldn't contain himself any longer. He slammed both of his hands on the table.

"What is it with you people, anyway? Who cares whether or not Hitomi had a crush on some guy five years ago. I've been with more women than I can count. I have probably been in more living quarters than the boss has been during his entire career guarding maidens in distress in their towers as a knight. Not that he ever needed an excuse like that to charm the ladies. He always did have more tact than me when it came to dealing with women. In fact I was pretty surprised when he settled down three years ago. I never thought I'd live to see the day when Allen was engaged."

The air in the room suddenly became lighter. Hitomi was glad that Gaddes was there to break the tension. He always had a gift for that.

Van came to his senses and glanced at Hitomi apologetically.

"Gaddes is right. I don't know what came over me. I'm really sorry Hitomi. Please forgive me for my rude behavior."

Hitomi smiled reassuringly.

"It's ok, Van. I kind of overreacted too. Let's just drop the subject and talk about something else."

Van nodded and directed his attention to the other men sitting at the table.

"I am sorry for what I said to you as well. I didn't mean to bring up the marriage between Dryden and Millerna. I know that is a sensitive topic. I guess I am still surprised that Dryden is the reigning king of Asturia. I don't think I'll ever get used to the idea."

Dryden shrugged.

"Well don't worry too much about it. I'm even surprised that Millerna wanted to marry me. I guess I should take my own advice and thank Allen for allowing her to become my bride."

Dryden's words suddenly clicked a light in Hitomi's head. She couldn't believe they hadn't registered before.

"Wait a minute; you mean to tell me that Millerna married Dryden and Allen got married to someone else? How could that be? When I did a tarot reading the cards said that Allen and Millerna should be together!"

Hitomi felt awkward all of the sudden bringing up her mishap with the cards. The memory of Asturia being attacked because of her faulty reading flashed before her eyes. She wanted to mentally kick herself for bringing up another sore topic. She was surprised that none of the men seemed to be angry. In fact none of them seemed to mind at all.

Dryden laughed.

"Well, your cards were right in a way. Millerna was not ready to give up on Allen just yet. She dated the pretty boy for a year and then she decided it was better to elope with me. She made the choice of her own free will. I was waiting for her to realize it on her own. That is probably what the cards meant in the end."

Allen scoffed.

"Though why she would choose you over me still is a wonder in my mind. I can't really complain though. When Millerna was gone I realized that there was someone I always looked up to. Someone I always had loved but wasn't sure why. The truth is that I always loved Eries."

Hitomi about fell out of her chair.

"Eries...as in Princess Eries? I thought that you said she was over serious and too demanding."

Allen shrugged.

"Sometimes the best people for you are the people you would never expect to fall in love with in a million years. I realized that Marlene was a fleeting desire. Millerna reminded me of Marlene. The only person I ever really loved because of how she made me feel...was Eries."

Hitomi felt her jaw drop open. Millerna married Dryden? Allen married Eries? So who did Gaddes marry; Merle??

Gaddes must have read Hitomi's mind because at the moment he said, "I never did get married myself. I like women too much to settle for just one. You know, that IS why the gods made so many of them."

Everyone rolled their eyes and laughed heartily at Gaddes' comment.

Gaddes frowned.

"What are you all laughing at? I'm telling the truth!"

Gaddes' frown deepened when everyone laughed harder than they had before. He finally admitted defeat and joined in with the laughter. Gaddes glanced over at Van.

"You know as a King, you should have an imperial harem. Royalty can get away with being loose without people thinking they're indecent."

The three men cracked up. Van and Hitomi were not laughing.

Van scratched his head nervously and said, "I may not be the best at relationships. Sometimes I am not the best with words. Even so there is only one girl for me, no matter how many crushes she has had."

Hitomi blushed and the men laughed harder. Van turned as red as Hitomi.

At that moment the front door opened. Everyone turned to see Yukari walking into the living room with a tall, brown haired man. The laughter ceased when the members at the table realized how similar the young man looked to Allen. Allen saw Dryden's eyes travel from his face to the young man's a few times.

"Darn, it is uncanny how much you two look alike. Hitomi, who is this guy?"

Hitomi laughed nervously.

"Allen, Van, Gaddes, and Dryden...this is my first crush, Amano."

Van did something no one ever expected he would do. After studying the face of the young man for a few moments he burst out laughing so hard that tears came to his eyes.

Through gasps of air Van managed to squeak out, "Hitomi, please forgive...me...for....saying...this."

There were more bursts of laughter. Everyone stared in disbelief.

When Van finally got control of himself he added, "But, my love...now I know why you liked Allen so much. You never liked him because he was handsome or intelligent. You liked him because...because he reminded you of your first crush! I'm right aren't I?"

Van continued laughing which made Allen mutter something under his breath and the rest of the members at the table to continue staring at him in awe. Hitomi rubbed her eyes in disbelief. Was Van really making a joke? Van was chuckling so merrily to himself that he attracted the attention of Amano and Yukari. They walked over to the kitchen table and gave Van a funny look.

Amano was the first to ask, "What is he laughing so much about?"

Hitomi stared up at Amano with her mouth open. She didn't know what to say.

She finally managed to choke out, "He's making a joke. In a hundred years I never thought I would see the day when Van Fanel, King of Fanelia, with his hot head and bag of his pride do something like this...but...he made one."

From what Hitomi had told Amano about her trip to Gaea Van didn't seem like the type of guy who ever laughed at anything. He exchanged awkward looks with Yukari as they watched the laughter of the young king die down.

Yukari finally said after a long pause, "Well, that is what love does to you. If you ever had any doubts about it before there is your proof right there."

Hitomi blushed.

"I guess you are right."

Hitomi noticed all at once that the table had gone silent. She looked at her friends and noticed that they were all staring at Yukari and Amano in awe.

Dryden was the first to speak.

"Hitomi...you didn't tell me that you friends spoke Gaean."

Hitomi looked at him curiously.

"They can't. They were speaking Japanese just now."

Allen raised his eyebrow.

"No, we clearly heard Yukari speak in Gaean."

Hitomi stared back at Amano and Yukari. They were looking at the party in disbelief.

"Hitomi we can understand what your friends are saying! I thought you said they couldn't speak Japanese!"

Hitomi was feeling confused until she noticed that the pendant on Van's neck was glowing. Hitomi looked at Dryden.

"Dryden...did you ever hear stories about the Atlantis Pendants, like the one my grandmother gave to me when I was young, while traveling the world?"

Dryden rubbed the stubble on his chin.

"Come to think of it I did hear one. It was more of a wives tale, really. Anyway, the legend went that there was a young man who loved a young girl with all of his heart. The problem was that he was not good with words. He took the Atlantis Pendant in his hands and he said, 'Oh Gods if you have mercy in your soul, let the wish of my true love be granted the day I can show my affections for her.' He tried many times to tell the girl that he loved her but he could never seem to find the right words to say."

Dryden took a sip of his beverage and then continued on.

"One day the girl was forced into an arranged marriage. The boy felt his heart break as his love's wedding day drew nearer and nearer. On the day of the marriage the young man showed his affections to the one he loved by giving her a kiss. The pendant glowed. The Gods granted his desire in that moment. His love was returned by the girl. For you see all the girl had ever wanted in her heart was for the boy to confess his undying love to her. The arranged marriage was called off and the boy and girl lived happily together for the rest of their days."

Dryden finished his drink off and added, "That is how the legend goes. This is the first time I've really thought about that story in years. Why did you want to know about it, anyway?"

Hitomi smiled.

"Because this whole time I have been wishing that you guys could understand my language."

The happiness spread to each member of the table until not one member was left with any other expression but a large grin. At that moment they all understood why the pendant was glowing. No one needed a further explanation than that.


	7. Living Quarters

A Week In Tokyo

Chapter Seven: Living Quarters

In order to make sure that Van and the others really understood Japanese, Amano had written a small dialog on a piece of paper and had each man call various pizza parlors around the city, pretending to order 'the super deluxe ultimate supreme.' No pizza place in town actually had this food item on their menu so the phone call was relatively safe. Each of the men passed the test with flying colors, although they were not certain what a pizza was or had the faintest idea what calling the restaurants really had to do with them suddenly acquiring their new language skills.

Calling the restaurants was not an easy task. It had taken some time for Hitomi and the others to convince the Gaean men that the phone was not a cursed Mystic Moon item. The Gaean men couldn't understand how one could communicate with someone so far away without some kind of magic involved. Dryden and the others were finally satisfied with the explanation Yukari had given them.

She had let out a heavy sigh and said in a matter of fact tone, "Look, you have sorcerers in your world that invent stuff right? (She had heard all about the sorcerers from Hitomi.) Well, we have inventors that are like them. The difference is that the sorcerers on your world use power sources like energists or magic items to make things work. The inventors on our world use electricity. The phone is just one device that inventors came up with. It's not a big deal once you realize that it's just an average household item."

The men still had the notion that something like electricity was closest enough to magic to make all of the devices enchanted in some way but they settled for Yukari's explanation rather than spend precious time over thinking the subject.

When Amano had made sure that every man had passed what he liked to call the 'take out order test' he gave Hitomi a friendly nudge.

"It looks like that legend Dryden told everyone was true. How cool is that! This will make things a lot easier for sure."

Van frowned when Hitomi looked up at Amano with a big smile and nodded. He couldn't help being a little jealous, especially when it concerned something like Hitomi's first love interest.

He cleared his throat and said with a hint of irritation in his voice, "It's great that we can talk to each other but that doesn't solve the problem of where Dryden, Allen, Gaddes and I are going to stay while we are on the Mystic Moon. We also have no strategy on what to do while Hitomi and Yukari are at school. I'm sure I can speak for the others as well as myself when I say that it would be uncomfortable to be cooped up in a house all week. We have no idea how Mystic Moon items work. We might expose ourselves to the locals by acting foolish."

Hitomi immediately directed her attention to Van. She realized that he was right. Van brought up a lot of things that she hadn't thought of before.

She stared at him thoughtfully for a few minutes and then replied, "I guess I was so excited about having you and the others learn Japanese that I didn't think about the rest. I don't really have an answer for everything but I might have a solution for your living situation. The truth is that I don't think you guys can stay with Yukari and me at our apartment. It is too small to find a place for everyone to sleep and we don't have enough food to feed everyone with. However, if it is alright with Amano, maybe you could stay at his place. Amano lives in a housing unit on campus with three other guys. There is plenty of room there."

Hitomi gave Amano a hopeful look.

"What do you think, Amano? Do you think that would be ok?"

Amano smiled down at Hitomi which made Van's frown deepen.

"Of course it would. In fact, I was expecting some family members from England to come stay with me at the end of the summer. I can just tell my roommates that Van and the others are my cousins visiting from London. If they ask why they are there early I will just say that there was a change in plans. It's the perfect cover-up!"

Allen seemed to think this was a very good idea because he clapped his hands together when he said, "That's brilliant! Anyway, it is more appropriate for us to stay in a male housing facility than share living quarters with two young women."

Gaddes nodded.

"Yeah, that's true. Just think about how things would go when we needed to use the bathroom chambers in the morning to freshen up and caught one of the girls unaware."

Van was surprised to find himself thinking about a nude figure of Hitomi wrapped in a towel and he felt his cheeks go hot. He was glad that he wouldn't have to deal with a situation like that during his stay. Even though he was still a bit suspicious of Amano's behavior toward Hitomi, he internally thanked him for saving him from such an awkward situation.

Dryden had been quiet since the phone adventure so everyone was surprised when he suddenly added, "That solves one of our problems but what are we supposed to while Hitomi, Yukari, and Amano are attending their classes at the university? We could end up getting into a lot of trouble without one of them showing us how to blend in to our new surroundings."

Everyone was silent as they tried to think of a solution. Yukari suddenly got an odd expression on her face that made everyone look at her with uncertainty.

They weren't sure what to expect when Yukari suddenly blurted out, "What if Van and the others came to school with us? We all have the same classes. We made our schedules so they would match at the beginning of the year, remember? It's a good thing too! Our school schedule will allow us to keep an eye on Van and the others while we are in class. Tokyo University has a policy of letting family members attend classes the final two weeks of each term. If Amano explained that his cousins had nothing else to do during the day I am sure that out professors would let them sit in for the final lectures. What do you think everyone?"

At first everyone just stared at Yukari in disbelief. The idea was pretty out there and it introduced a whole other list of problems, like what the men would do if a classmate asked them about London and they weren't able to give a proper answer.

Yukari sensed that her idea was not very popular and added, "I know that it sounds crazy, but what would we do if, hypothetically speaking, one of Amano's roommates were to come home before he got out of class and catch one of the guys doing something that they shouldn't be doing without one of us to explain their odd behavior? It would be a disaster!"

It became silent again. Everyone was too engrossed in their own thoughts to notice that Yukari was getting annoyed that no one would take her advice seriously. Her expression changed to a large grin when everyone eventually decided that her plan was the most sound, despite all of the risks. The men at the table gave short nods of approval though the uncomfortable air in the room hadn't quite settled.

Gaddes made the remark, "Well, It's better than getting ourselves into trouble at Amano's place. Someone will find us out if we don't have Hitomi or the others to keep an eye on us. I'm not sure what they teach in Mystic Moon universities but anything is better than ending up lost again without a proper guide."

Van, Allen, and Dryden all silently agreed. It was risky but they had to admit that it beat sitting inside a strange Mystic Moon building all day with nothing to do but talk amongst themselves and find ways to get into trouble.

Hitomi noticed that the plan was still was a sore topic by the expressions that her friends were making so she smiled reassuringly and said, "You know, I don't think that it will be so bad. After we get out of class Yukari, Amano and I can show you around Tokyo. It will be like a mini vacation before our real one. With Amano at the apartment it will be safe for you guys to get to know his roommates. You might even have fun! It's really the only option we have right now. None of us can leave until our finals are done. We might be expelled if we do."

All of the men muttered short words of approval and agreed that even though idea of going to a Mystic Moon school did not sound appealing, they could find some enjoyment visiting the different places around Tokyo with the three native inhabitants as their guides.


	8. Brief Goodbyes

A Week in Tokyo

Chapter Eight: Brief Goodbyes

After everyone had chatted for a while Amano thought it was best to get the group back to his housing complex. At some point during the visit he had called one of his roommates, Seji, and let him know that he was bringing four of his 'relatives' home later that evening. It was getting to be around that time now. The friends had spent so much time catching up that they barely noticed that it was starting to get dark outside.

When Amano noticed the time he told everyone he'd get the car ready. Yukari gave Amano a small peck on the cheek before he momentarily left the apartment to make room in the back of his automobile for more passengers. None of the men minded the arrangement. They were beginning to feel more confident about the plan after talking it over. They had even discussed famous landmarks that they could visit during their stay in Tokyo.

Van had been unusually distant while the others shot the breeze. He kept staring out a small window which rested on the wall facing the blue dining table, watching the sunset get replaced with the darkness and eventually the moon take its place in the night sky among the stars. Every once in a while he would join in the conversation when it regarded his opinion about the living arrangements but as soon as his attention was not needed his eyes would fall back into their place, staring out the window deep in thought.

He remained silent as Amano walked out the door of the apartment and Hitomi rose from the table to retrieve the duffel bag she had placed in the closest earlier. She swung it over her shoulder and walked back into the kitchen. When she arrived at the table where the four Gaean men were sitting she placed it in front of Dryden. She unzipped the bag and pulled out the remaining articles of clothing. The men listened intently as she held up the various outfits one by one and explained how to put them on. She paused when she caught sight of four pairs of shoes at the bottom of the bag. She couldn't believe that she hadn't seen them before.

She pulled the shoes out of the bottom of the duffel and threw each of the men a random pair. The men studied the footwear as they turned the shoes around in their hands. Hitomi explained how to tie the laces of the shoes and buckle the straps of the boots. After trying them on properly they discovered that the white tennis shoes fit Van, the brown dress boots fit Dryden, the black hiking boots hit Gaddes, and the grey running shoes fit Allen. They took off their old footwear and put their new shoes on which completed their outfits and made them look even more like super models than they had before. Hitomi and Yukari looked at each other and squealed.

Amano came running up the stairs a few moments later and told everyone that they were all set to go. Hitomi returned the loose clothing items to the duffel bag and zipped it up. She tossed it to Amano and told him to put it in the trunk. Amano nodded and placed the bag over his shoulder. Hitomi didn't want to leave the kitchen a mess so she took the pile of discarded shoes and placed them neatly on the top shelf of the walk-in closet down the hall. Before the men took off with Amano to their new location, Van asked Hitomi if they could speak in private.

Hitomi cautiously agreed and led Van into her bedroom. She shut the door behind them and turned on the light. Immediately the walls closed in on her. She was standing only inches away from her bed with the man she loved more than anything in the world standing right in front of her. She tried not to think about this as Van surprised her by taking her hands in his own.

He looked rather pitiful when he said, "Hitomi, I need to tell you something. I want to apologize again for what I said earlier today. I guess I was just a bit…uncomfortable with the idea of someone having feelings for you before I did. It was wrong of me to say what I did and…I just want to let you know that I'm sorry."

Hitomi let out a sigh of relief. She had gotten the impression that Van was angry at her by the way he had been acting most of the evening. She let go of Van's hands and gave him a warm embrace. Van felt time stand still as Hitomi tenderly held him close to her and rested her head against his chest.

She said gently, "Van, you really have nothing to worry about. You will always be the closest person to my heart."

Van felt himself go limp in Hitomi's arms. He placed his hands on her waist and drew her closer.

"Oh Hitomi, you have made me the happiest man on both worlds by telling me that."

The two held each other for a while without saying a word. Being in each other's arms after all of those years was all of the comfort they needed. Eventually, Hitomi pulled away from Van and smiled up at him.

She looked deep into his eyes when she said, "You never have to worry about losing me to anyone. You've always been special to me, even before I realized the feelings that I had for you. I want you to believe me when I say that Amano is just my friend. Besides, you can't be too worried. I didn't tell this to the others but Yukari and Amano are secretly engaged. They haven't told many people. I am one of the only people that they trusted enough to know. They are keeping their engagement under wraps until Yukari graduates from university next year. Amano is graduating this semester along with Ren. He is waiting to get married to Yukari until after she gets her degree."

Van felt his heart beat uncontrollably against his chest. He was so happy that he could have jumped over Gaea's two moons.

He said in a joyful tone, "That is wonderful news! I am truly happy for them. I do feel a little foolish for the way I acted earlier, knowing what I do now. I am sorry for what I said. To make it up to you I promise that I will keep what you told me a secret. I won't even tell Yukari or Amano that I know unless one of them brings up the topic themselves."

Hitomi chuckled.

"Good, because I know that Yukari would give me a hard time if she knew that I told you one of her biggest secrets."

The two heard Yukari say something about Amano waiting for Van in the car with the rest of the guys. Hitomi saw the disappointed look on Van's face and she felt her body go numb. She couldn't bear to let him leave the apartment with the same gloomy expression that he had had all night. She decided now was as good of time as any to give Van a reason to smile.

She placed her hands around Van's neck and said, "Van, I have something to tell you."

Van stared down at her curiously.

"What is it Hitomi?"

Hitomi pretended like she was going to tell him a secret and leaned forward. Van brought his head forward a bit to listen. He was caught completely off guard when Hitomi suddenly pulled him toward her and gave him an affectionate kiss. Van felt like he had died and gone to heaven. When he had recovered from the shock he put his arms around Hitomi's waist and pulled her close against his lips.

They stood kissing each other for what seemed like an eternity. Hitomi ran her fingers through his hair. He felt chills go down his spine. He never wanted that moment to end. The two finally pulled away from each other after some time. Hitomi stared up at Van who had an expression like he had just sampled the finest vino in all of Gaea.

Hitomi stared into Van's eyes lovingly and said, "If you promise to cheer up a little there will be more kissing in your future; but ONLY if you promise me that you will."

The thought of finally having chance to be alone with Hitomi and not being able to show her how he felt was more than Van could bear.

His heart was still beating wildly against his chest when he said, "I promise. You have the word of Fanelia's King."

Hitomi felt a wave of happiness wash over her. She was filled with so much joy that she could have kissed Van again. Instead she pulled him towards her bedroom door. She opened it and gave him another smile.

"Don't be sad anymore, Van. If I see a worried expression like you had tonight I might just have to give you a thousand kisses more to snap you out of it."

Van blushed. He felt guilty that he liked the idea of a thousand more kisses. Locking lips with Hitomi was pure ecstasy. It was better than anything he had ever experienced in his life; and he lived lifestyle of a King. Van simply nodded as Hitomi pulled him out of her bedroom into the living room where Yukari was giving them an annoyed look.

She said in a motherly tone, "Come on guys, Amano has been waiting for a while now. There's plenty of time for whatever you were doing later."

Van and Hitomi exchanged shy glances. The realization of what they had just 'done' dawned on them. Both Van and Hitomi tried their best not to blush. Hitomi laughed nervously and shot a sheepish grin in her friend's direction.

"I'm sorry Yukari. We are going right now. I promise!"

Van gave Yukari the most apologetic look he could manage as the two walked by her. They continued walking through the living room and out the door of the apartment trying to hide the embarrassed looks on their faces as Yukari eyed them suspiciously on the way out.

Van recalled his small moment with Hitomi as they walked out of the apartment and an odd sort of grin washed over his face. The kiss still lingered on his lips. Its sweet touch made him feel lighter than he had ever felt in his entire life. He was so wrapped up in thinking about the experience that he barely noticed that they had walked down the stairs of her apartment. He snapped back to reality when Hitomi took his hand in her own and squeezed it gently. They held hands as they made their way to Amano's car in the parking lot below.

The two finally reached the black Buick Regal. Hitomi let go of Van's hand and gave him a sweet smile that turned any rational thought he had left in to pudding.

She said gently, "You and the others take care. I will see you soon."

Van was hoping for another goodbye kiss but he had no such luck. Hitomi opened the car door and gestured for him to sit next to Dryden and Gaddes in the back seat. Allen and Amano were chatting in the front. Gaddes scooted to the center and Van got into Amano's car reluctantly. Hitomi said a final goodbye to her friends as Gaddes shut the door on Van's side and explained how to use a seatbelt.

The entire car ride Van had a funny expression on his face. It was something between a look of extreme joy and total shock. He responded to each of the men's comments about the strange vehicle they were riding in by saying weird things like, 'It's lovely' and 'that's wonderful' along with a great deal of other words that the men were almost convinced did not exist in Van's vocabulary before.

None of them knew what was making Van talk so strangely but they decided not to pry. Van was certain to just give them a bunch of nonsense words as an answer if they tried to ask him anyway.

Gaddes added dryly, "I just hope he snaps out of it before we get to Amano's place. It's going to be hard enough explaining why his relatives visited early without trying to speak up for Van."

The men nodded in agreement as they sped down the highway to Amano's housing unit, Van obviously too busy thinking about his first kiss with Hitomi to notice they had been talking about him in the first place.


	9. Introductions

A Week in Tokyo

Chapter Nine: Introductions

By the time the four men had arrived at Amano's place it was late evening. Van had managed to pull himself together long enough to introduce himself to all of Amano's roommates and help carry the duffel bag in. The other men were relieved that Van had finally come to his senses. It had been an interesting car ride in which Van brought up every positive thing that had ever happened to him in his life.

He had even started rattling off all of the positive things about their current situation. He had said things like, "You know, this is a great opportunity to learn more about the Mystic Moon," and "This experience will definitely give us time to think about how we can straighten things out with the council when we get back," and even "You know everything in life DOES happen for a reason." It was disturbing to say the least.

Amano's housing complex was located on the campus of Tokyo University. The Gaean men were amazed at the University's sheer size. Building after building loomed in the distance. They almost didn't believe it when Amano told them that the structures were only a small portion of the campus. It was hard to imagine the school being any larger than it already was.

On Gaea they were accustomed to trade schools. People who were not born into royalty often went to specialized schools in order to learn the trades of the common man. These trades included everything from sorcery to baking. The concept of education was not foreign. There were even schools on Gaea that offered diplomas in various subjects. It was the size of Tokyo University that was unsettling. Even the most prestigious trade schools on Gaea were not nearly as big.

The housing complex that Amano lived in was located on the outskirts of the University. It was made up of twenty fully furnished houses that framed the south end of the school. Amano parked in a car garage located a few streets away. The men walked to his complex staring at the mass size of the buildings around them in awe. Van and Dryden both felt a little self-conscious being the figureheads of countries that were not even half the size of an earth university. It was a humbling experience they could have lived without.

Upon entering the house they were greeted by the boy that Amano had talked to on his cell phone. The young man had black spiked hair with bleached tips and wore blue contacts over his naturally brown eyes. When the men walked through the door, the young man took the bag from Van and helped him stash it in a large closet down the hall.

When he returned he grinned and said, "Hello everyone, I'm Seji Yamada. It's good to meet you."

Van and the others said a quick hello as Amano's second roommate walked into the main entrance. The young man had a row of piercings that went up his ears on both sides. On his earlobes hung two gold metallic hoops. His hair was dyed brown with blond highlights running throughout. He had light brown eyes with gold rings around the iris. His skin was similar in color to Van's.

He waved and said, "Yo! You guys can call me Ren Fujiwara."

Everyone said hello as the third young man came marching in. He had orange hair (obviously dyed) with dark brown eyes and a tattoo of the Chinese character for strength on his right arm.

He gave a salute and said, "Hey guys! I'm Takuya Matsumoto. It's good to meet you."

Van and the others said hello and introduced themselves to the three young men, leaving out the detail of their last names just in case Amano had already told his roommates the surname of his cousins.

After the introductions were out of the way Seji gave the men a tour of the housing unit. It was surprisingly big. It had two stories and was very spacious compared to Hitomi's apartment. There were four bedrooms, two dining rooms, four bathrooms, two kitchens, two living areas, four closets, and a spare room that had a bunch of desks with computers sitting on top of them.

On the first floor there was a walk in entrance that led to a kitchen area on the right and a dining room to the left. Beyond the kitchen was the first bedroom. Amano told the men that the room was his. It had posters of a famous Japanese rock band called Arashi posted all over the walls. There were piles of books stacked on the floor. On the left down the hall from the first dining room was the second bedroom. It sat across the hall from Amano's room. Ren told the men that the room belonged to him. His room was messier than the first bedroom they had seen.

It had a bunch of clothing lying about the floor and on various furniture items. Stacks of DVDs and books were piled on a small desk in the corner. Next to Amano's room there was a bathroom. It was decorated in an aquatic theme with little fish on the shower curtain and towels that matched. A second bathroom sat across the hall from it. It was placed next to Ren's room and had a racing car theme. The curtain had small racing cars driving their way down into the bathtub and black towels with red racing stripes on the sides of them.

Beyond the two bathrooms the house opened up into the first living room. The living room had a large red couch and many strange Mystic Moon devices stacked on end tables. There was an entertainment center that had more devices on it that the Gaean men were not familiar with. Two closets rested against the far wall of the living room. One sat to the right and the other sat to the left. Seji told the men that the duffel bag was in the storage unit to the right.

Between the two storage areas there was a staircase. This led to the second floor living room. The second living room was rather spacious. It had two green couches and a bunch of furniture placed around it. It did not have the same machinery that the living room had downstairs. Allen guessed that they must not use that room as much as the others. To the right of the living room there was the third bathroom. It was decorated in a soccer motif. The shower curtain had soccer players kicking the infamous black and white globes across it in brightly colored uniforms. The towels matched the curtain as did the toothbrush holder and toilet seat.

Across the hall from the third bathroom was the fourth. It had naked ladies everywhere. This made the Gaean men feel a bit uncomfortable. Takuya grinned and said that he decorate the bathroom himself. There were nude woman in almost every square inch of the bathroom. Van wondered how anyone could ever bath properly in a place where a bunch of naked women were staring at them. The only man that didn't seem to mind was Gaddes.

He smiled at Takuya and said, "Good choice, man."

Takuya beamed with pride. He told Gaddes that he was happy someone else could appreciate the artistic value of the female nude. This comment made the other men roll their eyes.

Beyond the two bathrooms were the next two living quarters. The third bedroom to the left was Takuya's. Not surprisingly, it had posters of nude women tacked all over the walls. There were models of cars on top of his dresser and various other furniture items. The fourth bedroom to the right was Seji's. His room was the neatest out of all of the rooms they had seen. He had posters of cars taped around his room and a few swords tucked in the back beside his bed. Van was surprised to see the weapons.

He said in an astonished voice, "You have a long sword and a rapier. Are these your weapons of choice for battle?"

Amano felt his muscles tense up. Van had said something pretty suspicious. He hoped that wasn't enough to give his cover away. He was relieved when Seji laughed.

"It's something like that. I do sword fighting as a hobby. I can teach you guys some moves if you are interested."

The men looked at each other, clearly amused. If it was one thing Van and the others didn't need it was a lesson on how to handle a weapon. They didn't tell Seji this. The men politely agreed to let him show them some moves later as the young man showed them the rest of the second floor.

There were two storage units beyond the two bedrooms that faced each other on opposite ends of the hall. Beyond the storage unit on the right was the second dining room. It was not as big as the dining room on the first floor. It also wasn't as heavily furnished. The young men explained that they did most of their eating downstairs.

Across the hall from it was the second kitchen. It was also smaller than the first. It had a center island with a basket of fruit sitting on top of it. Ren laughed and told the men they hadn't touched the fruit since they moved in at the beginning of the semester. From his comment the men guessed that the downstairs kitchen was used more often than the one upstairs. The final room on the second floor was an odd space with a bunch of computers in it. It was located beyond the second kitchen and dining room. Stacks of video games were piled next to the computers. World of Warcraft posters were tacked all over the walls.

Once the men had a tour of the house Amano and the others helped turn the living room on the second floor into a temporary sleeping area for the four guests. Seji explained that the four rooms were already occupied by himself, Amano, Takuya, and Ren. He told the group that it was best that they camped out in the second living room since it was relatively closed off and the young men barely used it. Van and the others didn't mind. It was a larger space than any of the men were accustomed to sleeping in when they traveled to the various countries around Gaea on political business.

The men got a bit nervous when Takuya suddenly asked how they were related to Amano. They hadn't discussed that small detail before.

Amano simply gave a casual shrug and said, "Van and Allen are my second cousins on my mother's side. Dryden and Gaddes are second cousins on my father's side. I have a very large family and all of us are very close. Originally my cousins Jake and Elisa were going to visit but they decided to come at the end of the summer instead. Van and the others haven't seen me for a while so they decided to come in their place."

Takuya and the others seemed satisfied with the explanation though they were a bit astonished that Amano had so many family members living in London.

When everyone was settled in the four guests were led downstairs to the first living room and everyone took a seat on a big red couch. Ren looked over at the guests and promptly laid down the rules of the house.

He said in a serious tone, "Ok, so basically, this is how things work around here. All of the food in the house is equally shared by everyone. No one is allowed to claim any food item solely as their own. There are four bathrooms and only so much hot water to go around. Amano and I get first dibs because we are the oldest. Seji and Takuya get to use their bathrooms after we are through. You guys can use one of the bathrooms when the other guys are done."

Ren paused momentarily as if he was thinking hard about anything he left out and then added, "There is no curfew. You can stay out as late as you want but if you end up with a girl don't bring her back to the house. If you want to get busy rent a room at a hotel for the night. Everyone in this house comes and goes as they please. Just respect the members of the house if someone is sleeping. You can mess up your living space all you want but you have to try to keep the rest of the house clean."

Ren pointed toward an X-Box 360 lying on the living room floor and then pointed toward the spare room above his head.

"But the most sacred rule of all is that everyone in this house must play Halo on the 360 and World of Warcraft in the computer room upstairs as often as they can manage. Failure to comply by the rules will result in automatic throwing out. You all got that?"

Van and the others uttered small words of agreement. They were not sure what Halo or World of Warcraft were but judging by the look on Ren's face they guessed that they would figure it out soon enough.

When the men had chatted for a considerable amount of time Van and the others journeyed upstairs to retire for the night. The men retrieved some pairs of night clothes from the duffel bag in the spare closet downstairs. Van and Gaddes camped out on the floor while Allen and Dryden took the two couches that rested on either end of the living room. They decided they would shift sleeping arrangements each night so everyone had a shot at sleeping on the couches at some point during their stay.

The men drifted off into a deep slumber in no time. It had been a long day and they wanted to get some rest before their adventure at the university in the morning. Van was the only that seemed to be smiling in his sleep. Regardless of the circumstances of him being on earth, he was happy that he finally had time to spend with Hitomi. He slept soundly dreaming about the thousand kisses Hitomi would give him if he did not cheer up. His dream self pretended to pout in order to receive them. It was the best night sleep that he had had in a very long time.


	10. No Rest for the Wicked

A Week In Tokyo

Chapter Ten: No Rest for the Wicked

An ocean of stars shone brilliantly over the kingdom of Fanelia twinkling softly in the evening sky. Two moons hung above the small houses and farmlands dotting the emerald valley. The moons were unusually large and were glowing brighter than usual. Everyone in the Fanelian countryside was tucked away in their beds, sound asleep. There was only one house that still had a chorus of artificial lights pouring out from its many windows onto the dark earth below. This was the manor of the ex-council member Vladimir Kent.

He sat at the desk of a large study, his dark blue eyes staring at an odd machine resting on the floor beside him. The machine rose up from the base of the floor to a few feet above his head. It started out as a cylindrical shape at the bottom and twisted into a spiral at the top. A giant brass handle reached down from the center of the device to the desk where he sat. Vladimir leaned his right hand against the lever of the odd machine and pulled it toward him. He grinned wickedly to himself as an image appeared on a screen in front of him. A row of gray teeth were visible from behind his pasty white lips.

He rubbed his old withering hands together causing his yellow fingernails to occasionally touch. He cackled as he watched the scene appear in the small screen located at his eye level in the brass instrument for the millionth time. The event came flickering back like an old movie reel. It showed the five council members attacking Van and the others and dying at their hands. He laughed wickedly as they buried the men by a shrine for the God Shuchen outside of the city.

He was temporarily distracted from his work when his son Charden came marching into the room. He grunted and attempted to watch the scene over again. Charden didn't like the fact that his presence was being ignored. He surprised his father by walking up to his desk and slamming both of his hands down on the space in front of him.

He looked intently at Vladimir with his piercing blue eyes and said, "You've been staring at that infernal device for hours! What do you hope to accomplish by watching that scene over and over?"

Vlad gave a small huff and ran his bony fingers through his white hair. He had to journey further down his scalp to accomplish this. His hair line started just above his ears and fell messily around the base of his shoulders. He momentarily took his eyes off of the machine and glared at Charden with a look of annoyance on his face.

"Everything rests on this moment. I knew that there was a power spot by the shrine. That is why I lured Van and the others there with the attack in the first place. Using this machine that I uncovered from Zaibach, I was able to send them to the Mystic Moon. I know that they will have a hard time getting back. We can use the time they are away to our advantage."

Charden raised himself up off of the desk and crossed his arms in front of him indignantly. He stamped his foot against the ground, clearly unsatisfied with his father's answer.

"That still doesn't explain why you are watching that scene in the Tarndulosk. Aren't you wasting precious time concerning yourself with such a stupid thing?"

Vlad returned his gaze to the familiar scene in front of him and gave a short laugh.

"The Tarndulosk shows the past but cannot project images of the future. I was hoping to find where the men ended up as the day progressed but I had no such luck. It was then that it occurred to me that the machine can only project past images of the world it is on. By watching this scene I have discovered that Van and the others are on a realm where not even I have the power to determine their fate. They have little hope of coming back without a power spot. If I can find a way to seal the entry place by the shrine it will take them longer to reach Fanelia if by some miracle of the Gods they are able to get back at all."

Charden snorted. He couldn't understand for the life of him why his father was so obsessed with watching history unfold before him in an outdated piece of Zaibach technology.

There was a frown on his face when he muttered, "Well then, what have you learned by staring at that stupid thing? I hope that it is worth killing off all of those men over. We could have used them as extra manpower in a violent takeover of the kingdom."

Vlad scoffed and pulled the lever toward him once more.

"Learn something from your father, Charden. Patience always pays off in the end. Those men were expendable. They were orphans from the war and had no family to speak of. They were expelled from the council so no one will go looking for them for a while. Their death was more useful than their insignificant lives. When Van and his companions went to the power spot I was able to send them off to the Mystic Moon with the help of his Atlantis Pendant and the Tarndulosk."

Charden was beginning to get flustered. He kicked the side of the machine angrily. It did not affect the image which kept playing before Vladimir's eyes.

His raised his voice a bit more than he intended to when he said, "You never answer my questions directly, old man. Just give me a bloody straight answer. How is this stupid machine going to help us at all? I thought that you wanted me to be the King of Fanelia. Isn't that why you made that proclamation that Van had to find a bride within a year before you were thrown off the council? Everyone knew that he would refuse. He doesn't love anyone but that stupid girl from the Mystic Moon."

Charden calmed down a bit when he saw the look on his father's face. He knew how his father got when he was angry. He didn't want to put the old man in a bad mood before he had a chance to reason with him.

He lowered his voice and continued cautiously, "Well, that is what you led me to believe anyway. I assumed at the end of the year when Van still did not have a bride that we could convince the people I was his cousin with no political hitches. I still have the false documents drawn up. I was under the impression that you wanted me to take the throne so we could rule Fanelia from the inside and eventually lead a war against the other kingdoms. Now that we have no chance of accomplishing our goals through trickery I think that we should just kill off all of the politicians. You always go about things the hard way. If you want a change in dynasty you have to take it through murder and the spilling of royal blood. Patience has nothing to do with it."

Vladimir continued staring at the device when he shook his head.

"That political move was made for no other reason than to stir things up. I wanted the politicians to believe that I had ulterior motives in government that could be remedied by expelling me from the council. The false sense of security that the council members have felt since forcing me to leave can be used to our advantage."

Charden felt a bit betrayed that his father hadn't told him that small detail before. His arms dropped to either side of his body in shock.

When he regained his composure he narrowed his eyes at his father and said, "Have you gone mad? I thought that you wanted revenge for what they did to us. I am beginning to doubt that you have any sense left in your head at all."

Vladimir pulled the brass lever to the right which shut off the machine. The screen went gray, reflecting only the light from the candles sitting around the room. Vladimir pulled open a side compartment of his desk and took out an Atlantis Pendant with a black stone. He placed the pendant in front of his face and smiled wickedly up at his son.

"I am sure you will change your mind when you hear what I have to say. Do you have any idea what the artifact I am holding in my hand is?"

Charden gave an incensed look at the stone and then his father.

"It looks like a stupid Atlantis Pendant. What does it got to do with us taking over the kingdom?"

Vlad's wicked grin got larger exposing more of his gray teeth.

"This, my son, is not an ordinary Atlantis Pendant. It was created by the sorcerers of Emperor Dornkirk during the Gaean War to seal off power spots. There was only ever one crafted during the war and it was never used due to complications the empire faced after the final battle. A regular Atlantis Pendant transports people to new locations through power spots and grants the owner the power of their wishes. These artifacts are difficult to find. Historians have guessed that there are only ten of the original pendants left on Gaea. Only three have been recovered."

Vlad paused momentarily to point toward three kingdoms drawn out on a map of Gaea in front of him with his other hand.

He looked back up at his son and said, "The first is owned by the current King of Fanelia, Van. The second is guarded by the royal house of Egzardia. The third is in the hands of a historian from the country of Basram. Van and the royal house of Egzardia have no idea of the power they posses in the Atlantis Pendants that they own. The sorry excuse of a Basram historian keeps it on display in a museum in his country. It is not a total loss. Their ignorance can be used to our advantage."

Vladimir noticed that Charden was starting to get upset again. He sighed and placed the pendant around his neck.

"Look, I have just made one threat disappear. What if I made all of the threats go away? Then I would have the only working Atlantis Pendant on Gaea. The special thing about my little trinket is that I can not only use it to seal power spots but also that I can make curses with its black energy. Wishes are made from the heart. That is why a real Atlantis Pendant would not work in the hands of a person like you or me. But this Atlantis Pendant...the Kebarean Pendant...will grant us the desires born of our greed. If we use it in conjunction with the Tarndulosk we will be an unstoppable force for both Fanelia...and the rest of Gaea."

This piqued Charden's interest. For the first time since he had entered the room a hint of excitement shone in his light blue eyes.

"If we have this power, what are we waiting for? We could start wreaking havoc on Gaea at this very moment."

Vlad knotted his old bony fingers together as he rose from his place at the desk.

"The first thing to do is seal off the power spots. There are many on Gaea. No one is quite sure of the number. The thing about them is that they all appear when one is active, even if they are not active themselves. By watching the image in the Tarndulosk I was able to record the other power spots that showed up during the transportation on this map. Using the Kebarean Pendant we can seal them off when I am able to line up all of the past transportation spots in the viewing area of the Tarndulosk. This is a difficult task. I have only been able to align seven out of the fifty I mapped out. Now you know what has kept me busy all day."

The realization of the power he had access to made Charden give his father a dark smile with his equally pasty lips.

"I like this idea very much, but what do we do about the kingdoms that have the Atlantis Stones? Couldn't they be a problem for us later?"

Vlad nodded gravely.

"You are right, Charden. This is where your unique skills can be useful. The way I see it, aligning the events in such a way that they will be useful will take at least half of a week's time. It is a delicate process and I have to do it in a way where it will not overload the machine. While I calibrate the machine you can gather a group of men together and find a way to steal the other two pendants from the kingdoms of Basram and Egzardia. With Van and the others wandering around on the Mystic Moon, our plan will be foolproof."

Charden ran his fingers through his golden hair.

"I will have no problem carrying out a task like that. I have an army of doppelgangers willing to help with any task you need. Those stupid creatures will do anything for an excuse to go to war. They have deep loyalties to our bloodline anyway, for taking in many of their clans after the war."

Vlad unclasped his hands and pulled open another drawer. He took out a feathered pen and placed it beside a map that was resting on his desk.

"That is true. We also have many other people throughout Gaea that owe our family favors. We can use their false sense of loyalty to our advantage later. For now, use the doppelgangers and get the Atlantis Pendants back in one piece. When they are here I will properly dispose of them."

Charden have a wicked smile and turned to leave the room. When he got to the door he paused and stared back at his father with one golden eyebrow raised.

"I have to ask father; why DID you spend so much time trying to marry Van for off all of those years when you have been working on this plan the entire time?"

Vlad walked toward his son and put his bony hand on his shoulder.

"That should be obvious, my son. While Van was away courting princesses in the other kingdoms it gave me time to look through secret documents kept locked up in the royal safe house. I was able to find old technical plans that had been confiscated from the kingdom of Zaibach after the war. The old documents told me where to find the Tarndulosk and Kebarean Pendant, which the other kingdoms failed to recover after the fall of Zaibach. This small, fatal detail will spell the end for all of them. Everything else in Zaibach was either burned or destroyed after the war. Fate has made it so that we have the two relevant artifacts necessary for bringing the world of Gaea to its knees."

Charden laughed wickedly as Vlad took his hand off of his shoulder and cackled darkly with him. When the dark laughter ceased Charden gave a small nod in his father's direction.

"Leave everything to me, father. I will make sure you get the pendants you desire. I know that you do not want me to cause trouble just yet so I will behave myself. It will be a simple retrieving mission, no more, no less."

Vlad gave his son an affectionate look.

"Good because I would hate to see what would happen if our plan was uncovered before either of the artifacts could be used to their full potential."

Charden nodded and gave his father a small bow before walking through the open doorway and disappearing down the dark hall of the manner. Vlad sighed and returned to the large chair placed in front of his desk. He sat down in it and continued to tinker with the odd machine beside him.

"Fanelia and all of Gaea will be sorry that they ever made an enemy of Vladimir Kent. I will see to it that all kingdoms meet an ill fate when the power of the necklace is realized," he muttered to himself as he worked to chart the rest of the locations on a large map spread out on his desk.


	11. A Rival Emerges

A Week in Tokyo

Chapter Eleven: A Rival Emerges

Allen woke abruptly to the sound of Dryden stomping his feet on the living room floor next to the couch he was previously asleep on. Allen groaned as he rubbed his eyes and lifted his head slightly off of his pillow. He was clearly annoyed that Dryden had awakened him.

He grumbled in a sleepy morning voice, "What in heaven's name are you doing? It isn't even bright outside yet. Judging by the light I'd say it is only a few hours past sunrise. Let me rest in peace."

Allen turned round on the couch and laid his head back down on his pillow.

Dryden got a devilish grin on his face and yanked the covers straight off of him.

He smirked when he said, "Now, now Allen, there is no need to get touchy. It's time to get up. Amano says that the first class he has with Yukari and Hitomi is going to start in one hour. We've got to get ready before that."

Allen turned around and scrunched his face up at Dryden. He was still unhappy about his abrupt awakening. With some effort he lifted himself to a sitting position on the couch and stretched the kinks out of his back.

He groaned as he began to work out the knots in his arms and legs.

"Why do Mystic Moon residents go to school so early anyway? On Gaea you would never find a trade school that opens before noon."

Dryden shrugged.

"You've got me, but breakfast is ready downstairs if you want some. Seji made eggs, sausage, bacon, and pancakes. He's serving breakfast to Van and Gaddes now. It's weird that people on this world eat eggs for breakfast isn't it? You never see that on Gaea. Don't even ask me what pancakes are but I'm starving. I'll eat anything Seji gives me."

Allen mumbled a conformation and stood up from the couch. He straightened his hair as he walked downstairs to the kitchen on the first floor. Dryden followed closely behind him placing his untied hair into a ponytail as he went. When they reached the kitchen they saw Ren, Takuya, Amano, Van, and Gaddes sitting at the long table in the dining room. They were chatting as they ate their Mystic Moon cuisine. Seji was in the kitchen cooking more food for Dryden and Allen. Cooking materials were scattered across every surface of the kitchen. Seji was leaning over a pan and prodding what appeared to be some form of meat. When he noticed Dryden and Allen standing at the entrance he waved and told them to take a seat in the dining room.

"Don't worry about me guys. I'm the resident cook. I do this every morning. You guys are on your own for lunch and dinner though. Everyone's schedules are too complicated for me to work it out."

The two men obeyed and sat at the table next to Ren and Amano. Seji came in shortly after, balancing their two plates in his hands. He set the first plate in front of Allen and the second in front of Dryden. He took his seat next to Takuya and dug into his own plate of food shortly after.

Allen prodded the mound of scrambled eggs with the business end of a fork he had retrieved from the left side of his plate. He proceeded to hover his fork over the stack of round pieces of bread covered in a sticky, brown liquid. He poked at the strange pieces of bread suspiciously, not quite sure what to make of them. As he did, the brown syrupy liquid started to ooze down the sides of the bread cakes. Seji gave Allen a quizzical look as he continued to examined the stack of pancakes resting beside the mountain of lumpy, yellow and white scrambled eggs on his plate.

"Is there something wrong with the way I cooked them?"

Allen shook his head and smiled apologetically.

"Oh, I am sorry. You've got the wrong idea. It looks very good. I've just never had pancakes before. What exactly are they?"

The whole table went silent. Amano promptly smacked his left hand against his forehead. He was wondering how Allen could have let something like that slip when Gaddes came to his boss' rescue.

He had gotten the whole run down on Mystic Moon breakfast dishes from Amano earlier that morning so he cleared his throat and said, "Allen is just playing with you. Everyone knows what a pancake is. I think he meant to say that he has never had it with cinnamon and whipped cream on top. Where we are from we eat pancakes different."

Amano sighed a breath of relief as his other roommates shrugged off Allen's previous comment.

Seji looked at Allen and beamed.

"Oh yeah, I forgot that you guys are from England. I should have known that you do things different there."

He grabbed a glass syrup bottle from the center of the table and poured it on his stack of pancakes. When a great deal of syrup had been soaked up by the thin layers of cake he placed the bottle back in its place at the center of the table and smiled sheepishly at his house guests.

"Actually, this really isn't a traditional Japanese dish either. The guys are used to eating western meals so I cook them a lot. Our families each own pretty big corporations so we are used to having contact with America and London in our business dealings."

This sparked Van's interest. He took a sip out of a glass in front of him and then asked, "What do your parents do, if you don't mind me asking? Judging by the size of this place, the four of you do not seem to come from ordinary families."

Seji was the first to jump at the opportunity to talk about his family. He grinned proudly and replied, "Well, my family owns a large chain of grocery stores across Japan called Jomei Grocers. We just opened a chain in China and Korea last fall. My father also does a lot of trading on the stock market and has shares in American and Australian companies."

Takuya swallowed a large portion of bacon that he had previously shoved into his mouth and then winked at his house guests.

"You are right to assume that we aren't the regular stock of university students. My old man for example is the head of an automobile corporation called Eiji Motors. We ship our car models across the world. We have lots of dealings with western countries, especially Canada."

Ren twirled his fork in a pile of scrambled eggs on his plate that he had barely touched. He didn't seem as enthusiastic to talk about his family as Seji or Takuya had been. He sighed when he realized that he had to tell his guests something. He continued to twirl the fork as he muttered to no one in particular, "My mother and father own a large chain of pachinko parlors across Japan called Danno Parlors. My sister sits on the board of directors with her husband. I don't have a position in the company yet but when my father and mother retire my sister and I will be the co-heirs of the company."

Van got the impression that Ren wasn't the least bit interested in talking about his family. He thought about changing the subject but before he was able to think of another topic to discuss Amano piped something in.

"My family owns a large chain of famous hotels located all over Japan and Europe called Ebisu Inn and Suites. My mother met my father in London. She is western. That is why I have western features myself. I get teased about it all of the time."

Amano saw Ren and the others exchange glances and then give him a funny look. He stared back at them with a look of confusion on his face which turned to a look of panic when he realized his fatal mistake. If Van and the others were his family, why would he feel the need to explain all of this to them?

Amano was trying to find a way to get himself out of his predicament when Dryden cleared his throat and said, "I don't know why you are telling us all of this, man. We are your family, after all. That's Amano for you. He always gets carried away when he starts talking about himself."

Everyone around the table laughed and Amano felt his muscles relax a bit.

"_Good move, Dryden. You really saved me on that one,"_ He thought to himself as he put two pieces of sausages on his fork and shoved them absent mindedly into his mouth.

After the laughter died down, Van saw the gap in the conversation as the perfect opportunity to ask Amano something that had been on his mind for a while now.

He looked at his host and said, "When we were at Hitomi's house I noticed that you two have very similar facial features. Does that mean that Hitomi comes from a European family too?"

Amano shook his head.

"No, she's a hundred percent Japanese. Hitomi is a special case. She looks western but she is not. No one really knows why. She used to get teased for it in Middle School."

Van felt his heart sink. Hitomi never told him that she was teased at her school for the way she looked. Now he understood why she got so upset when the people on Gaea made a fuss over her short hair or odd clothing.

Gaddes was surprised that Hitomi had been picked on at school as well. He looked over at Amano and asked, "Doesn't Yukari have Western features too? I mean she has red hair and everything. Was she teased as much as Hitomi was?"

Amano raised one of his fingers and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Yukari's hair is actually black. She has been dying it for as long as I can remember. Yukari started dying her hair red long before we met because she didn't want Hitomi to get teased alone. When the students saw the two girls hanging out together they would usually leave them alone."

Amano pointed toward his light brown hair before continuing on.

"I used to get teased a lot too but people always eased up on me because of my family's political and economic power. Hitomi doesn't come from a wealthy family like me, so the kids at school were pretty harsh to her sometimes. Things got better when we all graduated from middle school and attended high school. Everyone had dyed hair at Kama Kita High. It was harder to tell who was western and who was not. There were also a lot of exchange students that regularly attended class during each semester."

Dryden felt his heart go out to the little lady. He had no idea she had such a rough time in school. Not quite sure what to add to the conversation, he frowned as he asked what he felt to be an important question.

"Her classmates weren't too cruel to her were they?"

Amano closed his eyes in an attempt to hide the sadness reflected in them.

"Sometimes they were pretty mean but it wasn't anything that Hitomi couldn't handle, especially with Yukari always backing her up. I would always help the girls when I could too. No one wanted my family involved so they usually eased up when I told them to lay off the harsh jokes."

Allen finished the last morsels of food on his plate. He had been silent for a while so everyone was surprised when he asked, "So, Yukari and Hitomi are commoners?"

Ren nodded. He had heard the story a hundred times from Amano so he felt confident enough to recite it in his place.

"Yeah, both of them come from middle class families. Hitomi's dad is an accountant who owns his own business and her mother is a stay-at-home mom. Her brother is still in high school and requires a lot of attention financially because of all of the extracurricular activities he is involved in. Yukari's father is the human resource manager for a publishing company called Syouri. Her mother is a technical writer for a computer company named Hajoi. Hitomi and Yukari are both attending Tokyo University on a scholarship. That doesn't help with things like rent or paying for books though. Those girls work themselves sick when they're not in school."

Van felt his veins turn cold as ice.

"What do you mean?"

Takuya picked up where Ren had left off. He had also heard the story a dozen times.

"Well their scholarships don't pay for their rent or food or any of the other basics. Hitomi works at the school radio station and Yukari works as an editor for the school newspaper. When they aren't working there they are doing internships in various offices around Tokyo. I never see either one of those girls rest. They usually take the week of finals off and one week after that. Then it is back to work. They didn't use to do that until one of the girls collapsed last spring. We insisted that they take a break afterwards. Amano and the rest of us help pay for their food and other things for the two weeks they take off."

Allen's mouth fell open in disbelief.

"One of the girls collapsed? Who was it?"

Seji frowned.

"It was Hitomi. She fainted in the school union. She was sick for a whole month after that. She kept coughing and forcing herself to go to her job and school. We finally put out foot down and made her take a break. I swear. I know that girl is getting a double major, but she needs to pay more attention to her health. She works twice as hard as everyone in school. I can't understand for the life of me why she pushes herself so hard."

Amano crossed his arms over his chest after finishing the last bites of his meal.

"Yukari isn't any better. She is always pushing herself beyond her limits. That is why we make them take a week off during their summer vacation every year. We take them to see places during the time they are off. We've all gotten to be pretty good friends that way."

Takuya slammed one of his fists down on the table and pushed his finished meal to the side with his other hand.

"If I had it my way I would make it so they wouldn't have to pay for anything outside of school. The girls won't let me help them no matter how hard I try. It's terrible. How can I let my love work so hard?"

Van almost chocked on the last serving of eggs he had recently stuffed into his mouth. He slid his empty plate to the side as he reached for something to drink. After taking a few sips of his beverage he returned his gaze to Takuya and felt himself turning rather pale. He gave Takuya a vacant stare as he managed to spit out the words, "You're…" and then "…love?"

Takuya un-tightened his fist and placed his hands behind his head. He got a strange look in his eyes when Hitomi's smiling face came to mind.

"Yeah, you know, Hitomi. I think she is cute. It's something about the way she smiles, or the way she wears her hair in a pony tail, or the way she laughs at practically everything."

Seji grinned devilishly as he put his finished plate on top of Takuya's.

"Or the way you want to get in her pants."

Takuya gave Seji a genuine look of hurt.

"That's not true, Seji!"

Ren pushed his unfinished meal to the center of the table and eyed Takuya suspiciously.

"Like heck it isn't. You just like her because she's the only girl who's ever refused your advances."

Takuya's shot an irritated glance at Ren.

"I like her for plenty of other reasons! You guys are just being jerks."

Ren decided to milk the situation for all it was worth and continued on, despite the look of embarrassment that was starting to grow on Takuya's face.

"What was that you were going on about the other day? Oh yeah. It was something like, 'Oh, Hitomi with your soft gold hair that falls to your shoulders and light green eyes. What man wouldn't want you? Yet you turn every man away who tries to date you. Are you destined to be a virgin the rest of your days? I cannot let that be the case! I shall show you the deeper meaning of relationships!' If that is not a declaration of your male need to get into her skirt, I am at a loss of what is."

Takuya's look of embarrassment quickly turned into one of irritation.

"Shut up, Ren. I've never talked about her like that and neither should you."

Seji shot him another devilish grin.

"You do in your sleep."

Takuya lowered his hands and balled them into fists at his side.

"Oh, why don't you shove off," he said dryly.

Amano noticed that Van had turned the same color as the table cloth and decided to clear up some things before the situation got any more out of hand.

"Um…Van, Takuya has a small crush on Hitomi. It's not that big of a deal. We always tell him that he never has a chance. Her heart clearly belongs to someone else."

Van didn't seem to hear what Amano had just said. His eyes were focused completely on Takuya. He seemed to be completely under the spell of the young man's words, as if they had metaphysically captured him in some unseen, magical trance.

Takuya didn't seem to notice Van's strange behavior and he continued on.

"I would like to see this guy Hitomi says that she likes. He couldn't possibly be as perfect for her as she is for me. At the same time, I have to admit that Ren has a point. Hitomi rejects the advances of every guy who tries to get close to her. Whoever he is, he's one lucky guy. He's just fortunate that he doesn't show up when I'm around. I'd like to give him a good old fashioned butt kicking for making her feel so lonely. I took her to the movies one time to cheer her up because she was distant all day at school. The whole time she was crying. She said not to worry about it because she cried about that guy a lot. I think she should dump him and go with me. I'd never make her cry."

Van snapped out of his trance and felt his muscles tighten. Not only was this man professing his undying love for the woman he cared for most in the world in front of everyone, but he had the nerve to call him out in public to engage in a duel for her hand. Van couldn't stay silent any longer. He rose out of his chair and stared menacingly down at Takuya.

"If it's some kind of battle for Hitomi's honor that you want, then you should face me like a man. Who are you to judge our relationship, anyway? I visit her in spirit as often as I can. It's not exactly easy having feelings for someone that lives on another…ouch!"

Van fell backwards into his chair and rubbed the top of his left foot tenderly. He glanced up at Dryden between rubs with an annoyed look on his face. The familiar stubble-faced man scratched his head nervously and gave him an apologetic grin in response. Van watched Dryden return his right foot to its original place underneath the dining room table. He said a curse word in Gaean as the pain began to subside. His gaze was redirected to the table just in time to see the surprised faces of his hosts. Van suddenly realized why Dryden had stepped on his left foot and mentally kicked himself for almost giving away their secret.

Van looked at the shocked faces around the table and quickly added, "Um, what I meant to say was, that it is not easy having a girlfriend that lives on another continent. I'm not able to be with her as much as I would like to because of the distance between us."

Takuya put one of his hands over his mouth and blushed in embarrassment. After turning the new information around in his head for a while he managed to spit out a kind of apology.

"Oh God, I didn't know that you two were together. I feel like such a jerk now. I wish Amano would have said something."

Takuya shot a death glare at his absentminded friend and then sat back in his chair with a look of defeat on his face. He was obviously upset at Amano for leaving out the small detail of Hitomi's current lover living under the same roof as him for an entire week. Behind the outward façade of defeat, Takuya was also feeling very sorry for himself for bringing up such a sensitive subject to the face of the man he often complained about in front of his friends. Van knew that his outburst was in bad taste even if he was just trying to voice his opinion on the matter. He felt guilty for making an otherwise pleasant conversation take an awkward turn so he stood up from the table and bowed toward each of his hosts.

"I'm sorry for making such a big deal out of it. I didn't mean to cause this much trouble. Let's just forget that anything was ever said."

Van turned to Takuya and added, "I hope that you and I can be friends after the way I acted; and at the breakfast table no less."

Takuya surprised everyone by standing up and stretching his arm forward to shake Van's hand.

"Hey, don't sweat it. You and I are grownups. We can settle this little matter like men. We obviously both have an interest in Hitomi. This doesn't mean we can't be friends. You go about winning her over your way, and I'll go about charming her with my good looks and awesome personality the way that I know best."

Van stood up on his end of the table and shook Takuya's hand with a look of determination in his eyes. The young man before him had some nerve calling him out during breakfast. Not only that, but Takuya wasn't willing to back down from a fight for Hitomi's love, even after he knew that Van and Hitomi were together. There was something about Takuya's unwillingness to give up that endeared him to Van. At the same time, there was something about Takuya's unwavering confidence in his ability to court Hitomi that made Van want to tear his head off.

Nevertheless, he smiled when he said, "Alright. May the best man win. However, do not be disappointed when Hitomi chooses me. I hope you will be man enough to be my friend after that."

Takuya nodded stiffly and the two men sat back in their respective chairs, staring at each other with the sparks of competition blazing in their eyes. None of the men seemed willing to back down from pursuing Hitomi as a love interest which made their will to compete for her affections grow stronger the more they studied each other's faces. This was turning out to be more of an interesting breakfast conversation than any of the men sitting at the table had anticipated.

Amano wanted to do something to break the awkward silence that had fallen over the table so he awkwardly noted, "Err…I think that we should really get going now shouldn't we? We only have a half-hour or so to get to class. Come on guys! Go get dressed so we can catch a ride on the campus bus."

Seji nodded enthusiastically and rose from his seat.

"You are right, Amano. We need to get ready for our first class. I'll start clearing off the table."

Seji began gathering everyone's dishes and silverware into a large stack to take over to the sink for washing. Ren followed suit and started putting the excess food in plastic containers which eventually found their way into the fridge. Takuya broke his stare with Van long enough to gather the condiments, and other food items that needed to be stored in the fridge or in the kitchen pantry. Amano asked Dryden to push in all of the chairs and Gaddes to put the table cloth in the laundry room, which turned out to be a small, open-walled chamber that was tucked into the far left hand corner of the kitchen. Both of the men carried out the task as Allen and Van were assigned to whipping down the table and chairs. Before long, the dining room and kitchen were clean with everyone's collective work. Amano and his roommates had already taken a shower so he invited Van and the others to do the same. Van continued to stare at his new rival as he walked out of the dining room, guided by Dryden who smiled apologetically at his hosts on the way out. Allen and Gaddes followed Dryden and Van out of the dining room, both thanking Seji for the breakfast as they did.

The four men journeyed across the first floor of the housing unit and climbed the stairs that led to their temporary living quarters on the second floor. They each took turns washing themselves in one of the two upstairs bathrooms. Amano had described the process to them during their car ride the night before. Van had tuned out most of the conversation on the ride there (thinking of his first kiss with Hitomi) so he had Allen show him how to work the knobs of the shower. When all of the men were cleaned up and dressed for the day, they met Amano, Takuya, Ren, and Seji at the front entrance of the housing unit located on the first floor. Amano guided everyone through the front door to the bus stop down the street. No sooner had the group of young men arrived, a large green bus similar to the one Allen and the others had seen the previous day pulled up to the curb and opened its front doors. Amano threw each of the Gaean men a bus pass before getting onboard.

He turned around at the top of the stairs that led inside the bus and said, "The guys and I keep extra passes around for when family visits. You can use these passes in place of money for now. Just show them to the driver like this."

Amano flashed his bright yellow bus pass at the bus driver before walking to his usual seat at the back of the bus. Takuya, Ren, and Seji also showed their yellow passes to the driver one by one and walked toward the back seats of the bus to sit near Amano. Gaddes was the first of the Gaean men to climb up the stairs of the bus. He took out his card unsure of exactly what he was supposed to do with it and walked toward the back, like the others had done before him. It seemed to work so he kept walking until he found a vacant seat near Takuya. Van, Dryden, and Allen copied Gaddes and sat next to Amano, Ren, and Seji respectively. The bus took off and Dryden began prattling on about how useful a system like that would be on Gaea, making sure not to mention any major details that the other young men would find suspicious. Allen and Gaddes just shook their heads and sighed as Dryden talked about the different ways they could build the bus system in Asturia. Van thought it very forward of Dryden to talk about all of this in front of Takuya, Seji, and Ren, but fortunately none of the young men seemed notice what Dryden was carrying on about as the bus took the group of young men to their desired location.


	12. Shades of the Past

Author's Note: From this portion of the fan fiction on, another author has joined the writing project so it is now officially a collaborative piece. The other author goes by the name Ayla and you can reach her by sending me a message on my main page if you want to talk to her about her added character or her story ideas. We also have another author by the name of Kylan who is letting us use one of his characters. If you would like to talk to him about his contributions to the story or his personal character you can send me a message on my main page and I will relay the message to him. Thank you for remaining loyal to the story and we hope to bring you an awesome conclusion with lots of twists and turns along the way. Also, none of us own Escaflowne in any way. We just like to use it for our own evil purposes. Also, we admit that the opening scenes of this section of the fan fiction were borrowed (in part) from the Asian drama Mars. This is a fan fiction! We can do whatever we like! But out of courtesy, we just thought we'd mention that. Oh, and that we don't own Mars. But give us good three months and we could. Evil laughter!

A Week In Tokyo

Chapter Twelve: Shades of the Past

Two Years Ago

Ayla had only arrived at Tokyo University a month ago, and already rumors were flying around the school like wildfire. The rumors ranged from Ayla setting someone on fire for looking at her wrong to her being hospitalized in an insane asylum. A lot of the people believed the rumors and kept their distance. Ayla didn't mind the rumors at all. In fact, she was used to them by now. She figured it was better for the Earth people to avoid her than to get too friendly and learn more about the things she intended to keep secret. So, the rumors worked to her advantage in more ways than one.

Ayla was on her way home from one of her classes when her sensitive ears picked up a muffled sound. Her curiosity got the best of her and she followed the noise. It led her to the fencing room. The door was ajar, and Ayla walked in as she took off her sunglasses to get a better look at what was going on. Though the room was somewhat dark, Ayla could make out the faint outline of two people. One was a fellow classmate who was in many of her classes. He had a row of piercings that went up his ears on both sides. On his earlobes hung two gold metallic hoops. His hair was dyed brown with blond highlights running throughout. The other person in the room was their English teacher, Dr. Coats. Dr. Coats had black hair, violet eyes, and was slender. She was wearing a black skirt that extenuated her female form on the bottom and a Tokyo University sweater on top.

She wrapped her arms around her classmate's waist and started stroking certain areas of his anatomy that would make any sensible woman blush. The young man attempted to pull away from her, but he couldn't escape her grasp. It was very apparent to Ayla that her classmate didn't approve of her English teacher's advances. Ayla had to intervene. She withdrew a sliding razor from one of the side pockets of her backpack that she used to sharpen her art pencils. She frowned. It would have to do.

"Pathetic," Ayla said in a dark tone.

She spoke louder than she intended to. Her voice echoed throughout the entire room. Dr. Coats turned around with a look of terror on her face.

"Who is there?"

The teacher got no response as Ayla seemed to appear out of nowhere. She was clicking the retractable razor blade slowly up and down as she spoke. She looked as if she was really going to kill the teacher.

"You know what I really loathe? People like you, who take advantage of students. Let him go right now."

She glared at the teacher with her icy blue eyes. Ayla's classmate looked like he was going to cry. Ayla was slightly moved by his emotion. Dr. Coats frowned.

"Or you'll do what? What can you do to me? I am the teacher and you are the student. I could make you fail my class if I wanted to."

The woman spat on the floor.

Ayla looked over at the razor blade.

"You are going to let him go or I'll do a lot worse to you than you giving me a bad grade."

Ayla moved like she was actually going to cut Dr. Coats face, but her reflexes were so fast that she stopped near the teacher's left eye. Dr. Coats fell backwards in response. When she hit the floor she looked up at Ayla with widening eyes. No one had ever attempted to stop her from taking advantage of one of her students. She had no idea what to do. After a few moments of staring up at Ayla in disbelief, Dr. Coats pulled herself up off of the floor, turned toward the exit, and ran out of the room.

As Dr. Coats ran out of the room Ayla yelled behind her, "Don't ever let me catch you doing something like this again. If you do, I'll kill you! Do you hear me? I swear that I will."

There wasn't a response but Ayla didn't expect one. She tucked the razor in the side pocket of her backpack now that she no longer had a use for it and looked back at the young man. When her eyes met his, he immediately looked down and pulled his arms over his legs in a crouching position. He was crying. Ayla didn't know what to do to comfort him. She had never been the type to stick around and comfort the person she lent a hand to. She was about ready to turn around and leave, when her classmate reached out and grabbed her wrist. He pulled her down next to him and grabbed a fistful of her shirt as he wept. Ayla could feel him shaking. He was actually scared.

"NO! Please don't go. Please stay with me."

He looked up at her as the tears streamed down his face and gasped. No one had seen Ayla's eyes since she enrolled at the University. They were a dark blue and seemed to have mystery written deep into them. It was the type of stare that made one nervous about what they said around her because her eyes told them that she obviously was light-years beyond their comprehension of any subject. They also looked sad but they didn't seem to be asking for someone to take care of her. It was the look of someone who knew she was alone in the world and accepted it. He was simply overtaken with her beauty. Her pale white face, long, sandy blond hair, and cobalt blue eyes were enough to make some of the pain from his encounter with Dr. Coats go away.

Ayla sighed.

"Don't worry, I won't go anywhere."

Ren nodded and tried his best to hold back the tears that kept escaping from his eyes.

"My name is Ren Fujiwara. You've probably heard of my family. I'm sorry that you had to get involved. I could have figured out what to do with enough time. I just didn't want to get my parents or friends involved. I didn't want them to think of me as someone who couldn't handle something like this."

Ayla's pursed her lips together before she said, "You know, you need to learn to protect yourself better, regardless of the type of family you come from. A lot of the time, people don't respond to just body language."

Ren whipped his tears away. They finally had stopped rolling down his cheeks in waves.

"You are right. I'm more of a car guy than a martial arts man. I never thought I would encounter something like this in school so I never thought I would need to learn how to protect myself. I guess I was wrong."

Ayla felt a bit of sympathy for Ren but it didn't show. She was an expert at masking her emotions.

"How did you get involved with that teacher anyway? You don't seem like the type of guy who would let things get that far."

Ren had stopped crying at that point and stared at the ground in front of him like he was in a daze. He wasn't sure how to answer the question but somehow he knew he could confide in her.

"This was the first time this happened. Dr. Coats said she had something to talk to me about after class so I followed her to the fencing room and that is when she started feeling me up. I didn't know what to do. I had never been in a situation like that before and I was always told that you aren't supposed to hit a woman."

Ayla scoffed.

"Well, when it is a woman like Dr. Coats, you have the license to do whatever you want."

Ren recalled that Ayla had done what seemed natural to get Dr. Coats away from him. He never knew a woman could be so intimidating. Today had definitely changed any previous opinions he had had about women in more ways than one.

"That must have been what you were thinking when you saved me. You looked like you really meant to kill her. I am glad it was just a bluff."

Ayla gave a crooked grin. Something about the way she smiled sent chills up Ren's spine.

"It wasn't a bluff. I really meant to. Fortunately for her, I didn't have the kit I usually bring with me that cleans up the mess after I'm done teaching people like her a lesson, so she got off the hook."

Ren was slightly shocked at her answer, but he couldn't shake how safe and comfortable he felt around this woman despite her rough exterior.

"What is your name? I told you mine, so I was hoping you would tell me yours."

In truth he hadn't learned her name, or if he had he wasn't paying attention in class when the teacher called attendance.

Ayla stretched out one of her hands.

"You can call me Ayla Cale Ashantie. It's nice to meet you."

Ren took her hand and shook it firmly.

"I'm glad that I met you, Ayla. I can never thank you enough for saving me."

Ayla looked at him as he released her hand. Ren blushed lightly, and returned his gaze to the floor.

She smiled at him reassuringly.

"No problem. I just hope I won't have to walk in on something like this again. I might actually kill the teacher if I do."

After the ordeal Ayla decided to take Ren home. She drove him to the South Campus housing unit that sat on the outskirts of the school. They said little on their way there, but when Ayla pulled into the driveway, Ren thanked her again for her help before she drove off.

Ayla decided she would go for a drive instead of heading to her next class. They weren't doing anything in Biology Concepts except reviewing notes and Ayla had already crammed all the things she needed to in order to do well on the test. She headed toward the mountains that framed the north end of Tokyo and spent some time thinking about her encounter with Ren at a tourist spot.

On the way back from her trip, her breaks started giving her trouble as she headed away from the mountain. As she turned around a corner she noticed that her brakes had stopped working completely. She drifted all the way down the highway and barely avoided several accidents. Once she was able to use gravity to make the car come to a stop she looked under the hood and noticed that the brake line had been severed. Ayla glared and pushed her car to a nearby auto repair shop.

The next day at school, Ayla noticed that Dr. Coats was about to head toward the stairs. Ayla swiftly grabbed the English teacher around the waist with one arm and with her other free hand she put the teacher's arm behind her back in a chicken wing hold. She led Dr. Coats the rest of the way to the stairs. At the stairs Ayla held the English teacher above the steps heading to the second level of the building and slightly pushed her forward.

"You know, it's lucky for you that I have excellent reflexes."

She leaned Dr. Coats in further, ignoring the whimpering noises that were escaping from her lips.

"Because had I not, I probably would have caused several accidents. You know if we are going to play like this, let's go all out because if it were me, I wouldn't have left something like cutting the break line to a student's car unfinished."

She gently leaned the teacher over the staircase. The teacher looked like she was going to slip from Ayla's grasp and break her neck. Ayla stopped playing with Dr. Coats after leaving her suspended in that position for a few seconds and let her regain her footing on the base of the stairs. Dr. Coats was still whimpering in terror at what had just taken place. Ayla shot her a mischievous grin.

"Oh yeah, you own the black Toyota Camry, right?"

Ayla's smile deepened. She knew she was right even without the teacher answering her. Dr. Coats didn't answer but her eyes told Ayla that she was right. Ayla gave a short laugh.

"Make sure you are extra careful not to get into any accidents. That might be hard considering what I've done to your car but I'll let you figure out all of the details on your own."

Before Dr. Coats could answer she grabbed the scruff of her collar and glared at her.

"One more thing; the next time you threaten me…"

Ayla leaned in close for dramatic effect.

"I will kill you. The threat I gave you in the fencing room was not a bluff. Next time I'll have all the necessary things with me to cleanup your mess."

The teacher's eyes widened in fear. Ayla released Dr. Coats from her grasp and walked down the stairs, leaving the English teacher alone at the stairwell. Dr. Coats was now slumped against the stairwell crying. Several students passed by and wondered what was wrong.

* * *

A man with black hair, brown eyes, and a muscular build was waiting outside the English room for Ren to arrive two weeks after Ayla's encounter with Dr. Coats. Ren passed by the man, not sparing him a second thought, until he reached out and grabbed his right arm.

"Are you the reason Dr. Coats quit?"

Ren turned around and stared at him blankly. He didn't know what to say. When the man didn't get an answer, he pulled Ren by the hair toward an exit at the end of the hallway. Ren struggled to get away from the man's grasp, but the pain from getting his hair pulled was distracting him too much to concentrate on a full-proof escape plan. The man continued to drag him through the exit of Liberal Arts building, across the courtyard, and to a little shed just outside the basketball court. The only light inside the shed was a little light bulb that looked like it was going out, because it was flickering like mad. The man pushed Ren inside the front door and blocked the entry way.

"Are you the reason she quit?" He asked again, with the light swinging above, extenuating all of his most intimidating features.

Ren couldn't answer, how could he? He honestly had no idea why Dr. Coats had quit. Ayla had hinted that she might have had something to with it, but Ren would just as soon die than tell scum like the man sitting in front of him something like that. The man looked him in the eyes with a snarl on his face, before he moved in to beat Ren within an inch of his life. He started by slamming Ren's head against one of the far walls and continued with beating his body with a discarded piece of wood he had found lying on the floor. Ren kept struggling but he couldn't get free of the man's grasp. At the rate things were going, he was sure to die if someone didn't save him soon.

The man continued to beat Ren in silence. When he saw that he wasn't attempting to fight back, he pulled him off the floor by his right arm and spit in his face.

"What? Not in the mood to fight back?"

Ren didn't answer and spat back at him. The man was enraged. He threw Ren back on the floor and continued to beat him in silence.

Back in the English room, Ayla was sleeping on her desk before class started. Hitomi glanced over at her desk with a look of concern. She figured Ayla must be working really hard at a night job or something to keep falling asleep in class like that. She didn't know much about Ayla, except that she was the university fencing champion and was in a lot of her classes. When Hitomi went to visit Amano with Yukari the previous night, Ren had told her that Ayla had helped him out with something important but he didn't go into too much detail. It was just like Ren to keep information like that to himself.

Hitomi realized that Ren hadn't shown up to class yet even though she was certain she had seen him in the hall a few minutes ago. Hitomi turned to Yukari with questioning eyes.

"Where is Ren?"

Yukari yawned. She was starting to think that taking a nap was a good idea. She rubbed her eyes a few times and pointed out the window.

"I saw him go with Lei to the Basketball court," she answered nonchalantly.

All at once, Ayla opened her eyes and sat up from her desk surprising Hitomi and Yukari in the process. She spared one glance in their direction and then scrambled out of her desk chair. Hitomi and Yukari watched as Ayla jumped over her backpack and ran full speed out the classroom's front entrance, without giving either of them so much as a clue to where she was headed. Yukari and Hitomi exchanged puzzled looks before brushing off Ayla's odd behavior and focusing on other conversation topics.

Ayla passed Seji as she rushed down the stairs that led to the English room. Seji recognized Ayla as the girl who had dropped Ren off at their house the night before and chased after her.

"Hey, wait!"

Ayla ignored Seji and kept running toward the basketball court, with him following close behind her.

In the equipment shed, Ren's vision was blurring. He had been beaten so badly that he could barely see. Before he passed out, he saw the silhouette of a figure behind his attacker. Ayla walked through the front door of the shed and tapped Lei on the shoulder. When he turned around, she immediately punched him in the face. Lei was shoved backwards by the force of the punch but he caught himself from falling on a nearby equipment storage unit. Lei growled and brought one of his legs up to kick Ayla. She caught it twisted it to the side, causing him to land on the floor of the shed.

Seji arrived and witnessed Ayla throwing Lei on the floor with one move. Seji knew then that his eyes had not deceived him. He wanted to make sure that she was the one he had seen drop Ren off at their house last night and now there was no doubt in his mind. Ren had somehow gotten himself involved with Ayla Cale Ashantie, the school fencing champion. Seji was in the fencing club with Ayla but he didn't know her very well. They were rarely fighting partners and when they did interact with one other, it was usually about stuff related to the club. He did however see enough of her fencing techniques in regional competitions to know that she was deadly with any weapon she was given to fight with.

If she was scary with a long sword or rapier she was even more intimidating when she used martial arts. Despite her deadly weapons and martial arts techniques, she was very graceful when she fought. Seji witnessed her grace as she kicked Lei in the stomach, sending him flying head first out of the shed. He landed out on the basketball court, flat on his back. Ayla went over to Lei and proceeded to grab his shirt with one hand while she made a fist with the other. She said nothing and glared at him menacingly.

Lei waved his arms in front of his face in a submissive pose.

"I give up! I give up..." He choked, clearly exhausted.

Ayla let go of his shirt and his head fell softly on the ground. She continued to glare at him.

"If you ever come near Ren again, I will not be as forgiving!" She spat.

Lei nodded furiously and turned to pick himself up from the ground. When he was on his feet, he ran as far away as his legs would carry him without once looking back.

Ayla went back into the shed and picked up Ren's unconscious form. As she came out of the shed Seji looked at her with his mouth slightly open. Ayla turned her head to look at Seji for a split second before she continued to walk, carrying Ren's unconscious form back to her house.

Seji stared after Ayla in disbelief. He knew that she was the school fencing champion but he had no idea she was this good. He watched as Ayla carried Ren away toward an apartment complex located at the north end of the school. He didn't chase after them. Somehow he knew he could trust Ayla to take care of Ren, but whatever she planned to do, he prayed that she did it fast.

Seji decided it was best to forget what he had just seen and head to his first class. He passed Amano on his way but he kept his mouth shut about what had just happened. Something told him that Ren would want him to keep what he had just witnessed between the two of them, so he merely said "hi" as he passed Amano in the hall and walked through the door that led to his Comparative Literature class.

Ayla had managed to carry Ren a great distance without taking the bus and got him to her apartment in record time. She opened the front door to her apartment by tossing Ren up a bit to reach the door handle and turning it to the left. She used a spare foot to kick the door open the rest of the way and ran toward the front room. When she reached a burgundy couch, she gently laid him on top of it. She dashed to her apartment's small kitchen and made her way over to a large, oak cabinet above the refrigerator. She opened it up and took down a blue, metallic tin. She set the blue tin on a nearby counter and then bent down to a lower cabinet underneath the kitchen sink. She opened it up and grabbed a white, medium-sized, ceramic bowl from within. She lifted the bowl up to the sink and filled it halfway with warm water. Once the bowl was full, she turned off the water and rushed it to the front room. She sat the bowl down on the coffee table sitting in front of the couch and then headed back to the kitchen to grab the blue tin off of the counter.

Ayla came back to the front room after grabbing the blue tin and set it on one of the end tables on the right side of the couch. She pulled up one of the front area chairs and sat it next to the white ceramic bowl. Then she grabbed the blue tin from the end table and opened it. She grabbed a pinch-full of herbs from within the small blue container and threw them in the water resting in the ceramic bowl. She let the mixture soak for a few minutes before she began setting to work healing her injured patient. She made a blue washcloth materialize out of thin air. She didn't worry about Ren seeing what she had just done. He was too far-gone to notice anything out of the ordinary.

This theory was confirmed as Ren gurgled and spit up blood. Ayla knew that if she didn't act quickly, he would die. She applied the healing tea mixture she had just conjured to his wounds. Ayla watched as the bruises that were starting to show through his pale skin stopped changing color and went to their normal shade. She then watched as the tea worked on his minor cuts. Within minutes Ren's bruises and minor wounds were healed. He began to look like himself again. Now all that was left was dealing with his major wounds and broken bones. Ayla knew the only way to heal those was to give him some of her blood. Just as Ayla was about to bite into her arm, Ren's eyes sprang open. He spit up more blood before he screamed out in pain.

Ayla laid one of her free hands on his chest and tried to get him to calm down.

"It's ok Ren, you are completely safe here."

Ren looked at his surroundings and noticed that he wasn't in the equipment shed anymore.

"Where am I?" He managed to say, but just barely.

Ayla dipped the washcloth into the tea mixture one last time and placed it over a bruise she had missed on Ren's left cheek.

"You are at my house. Now, don't talk. If you struggle, you are just going to make yourself worse."

Ayla placed the washcloth back in the ceramic bowl. Ren watched as she proceeded to wave her hand in front of her. Instantly, a clear wine glass appeared. Ren sat staring at the glass, his eyes almost bugging out of his head_. I must be worse off than I thought_. He reasoned. It was the only explanation he had for something like he had just seen. Ayla bit into her arm, squeezed some of her blood into the glass she had just pulled out of thin air and handed it to him.

Ren took the glass and stared at it in disbelief.

"No. I can't believe this is happening. I must be worse off than I thought. This has to be a dream. Maybe I will die soon…"

He said this barely above a whisper and tried to lower the glass but he couldn't operate his arm properly. The pain that shot up it when he attempted to move it down caused him to scream out in pain. His whole body felt like lead. He could barely move.

Ayla closed his loosening fingers around the glass and gently bent his arm up so the glass was touching his lips.

She let go of the glass when he had it where it needed to be positioned and yelled, "Just drink it!"

Ren shook his head no, even though he couldn't' take the glass down. His arm was so bad that it had actually become stuck in that position. Ayla glared at him.

"I'm not asking you to drink from the glass; it is an order. If you don't drink the contents of that glass, you are going to die for sure. Just do it or I will force you to." She spat.

Ren reluctantly tipped the glass forward causing its contents to fall in his mouth. He closed his eyes as he drank the thick red liquid. He almost gagged as it slid down his throat. It tasted awful at first, almost like the fat that one left in a frying pan after cooking bacon, but then all at once it was the most wonderful taste he had ever experienced. He couldn't imagine something tasting better in the world. He emptied the contents of the glass greedily and set it on the coffee table in front of him. Immediately he could feel his broken bones healing underneath his skin. He sat up on the couch and watched as his deep injuries instantly healed as well. He could feel the blood coursing through him and doing its miracle work on his injured body.

Ren waved his arms and moved his legs when he was sure that he was completely healed. There was no longer any pain. He looked up at Ayla with questioning eyes.

"What are you?" He asked amazed.

Ayla sighed.

"I can't tell you, you wouldn't believe me anyway."

Ren looked a little disappointed but then shrugged.

"I have my secrets too. You don't have to tell me anything. Your secret is safe with me. But I have to know; how did you know where to find me?"

Ayla stared straight ahead like she was trying to recall something from earlier.

"Yukari told me that she saw you and Lei outside the basketball court. I knew it wouldn't be a good for you to be around him, so I ran there to help you as fast as I could."

Ren looked confused.

"Why did Lei want to mess me up so badly?"

Ayla looked at him like he was stupid.

"Because Lei is Dr. Coat's son. I thought everyone knew that."

Ren saw that Ayla was frustrated by his questions and he felt a little guilty about asking them but that didn't stop him from asking the next one.

"But why did he come after me? Didn't Dr. Coats quit because of you?"

Ren didn't mean his question to sound accusatory as it did and it was clear that Ayla took it wrong from the way she was scraping her nails against the side of the glass he had just drank from.

"I don't deny it. Dr. Coats did quit because of me, but she wouldn't have been stupid enough to mention my name after what I did to her. So naturally, she must have told her son that you were the one who made her quit. I bet she left out the details though. She didn't want me to get involved again."

Ren nodded. It was starting to make sense but there was one detail that seemed out of place.

"If Dr. Coats is afraid of you, why did she send her son to deal with me? You made it clear that if anything happened to me there would be hell to pay."

Ayla frowned and stopped scraping the side of the glass.

"She didn't. Lei was taking his anger out on you of his own free will. Dr. Coats wouldn't have wanted me to get involved. She just told that story to her son as a pathetic excuse. I bet you aren't the first student that she has done something like that to. In a way, I pity her son. I bet he will never know what his mother is really like."

Ren watched Ayla drop her gaze and stare at something far off in the distance. When she put it that way, he actually pitied Lei himself.

A few moments of silence passed between them before Ayla said, "I think you should go."

Ren nodded. He knew he had already overstayed his welcome by inconveniencing her in the first place. He thanked her for everything she did to help save his life and casually walked out the front door without sparing a single glance behind him. This was the type of relationship that he and Ayla had. Neither he nor Ayla had to talk about the things they weren't comfortable sharing with one another and when one person told the other to leave, they did it without question. They had a hidden understanding of each other that went beyond just being first time friends. That's all they needed and it made them content.

It was almost noon when he reached his campus housing unit. When he walked through the front door he realized that he already missed being near Ayla, but there wasn't really much he could do about it. They had a hidden understanding of one another and when she told him to leave, he did. That didn't change the fact that he felt alive whenever he was around her. He couldn't explain it exactly; it was like he wanted to settle down with her but there was a part of him that subconsciously knew that they could never be anything but close friends. Nevertheless, he wanted her all to himself. He wanted to be the one there for her, to protect her. He wanted to be her shoulder to cry on.

Seji found Ren sitting on the downstairs living room couch when he came home from school. He had so many questions to ask him about what had gone on that day, but he knew Ren probably wouldn't answer any of them. Seji didn't say a word as he sat on the couch next to his friend and gave him the most serious look he could manage.

"Look Ren…you don't have to tell me what happened, but if you are ever in trouble like that again, please let me know. You are my brother. We might not be biologically related but we've known each other so long that honestly, that is what I think you are. You aren't just my friend, you're family. So if that punk comes looking for trouble again, I will make him sorry he ever messed with you."

Ren put his arms around Seji's neck and gave him a brotherly hug. Seji hugged him back and then the two let go of each other simultaneously.

Ren gave Seji a genuine smile.

"Thank you for the offer, but starting today no one is going to get the opportunity to beat me up again. I just got off the phone with a martial arts studio near campus. I'm going to start taking classes every day after I get out of school. I also got off the phone with the fencing club president. I'm enrolled in that too. Between martial arts classes and fencing, I think I'll be able to handle things on my own."

Seji gave Ren a look.

"That's good. Just don't get your undies in a bunch if I beat you at the state championships. I am one of the best fencers in the club."

Seji tried to keep up with his serious act but it wasn't long before the two of them were laughing and talking about playing Halo on the Xbox 360. They didn't talk anymore about what had happened that day and went on to grab the wireless controllers for the 360 from the entertainment center, just like two brothers who were trying to relax after a long day at work.

* * *

It had been months since the last time Ayla had put her life on the line to protect Ren, which was a good thing as far as she was concerned. It wasn't that Ayla didn't like protecting him, but she figured he would be happier if he learned to protect himself. As it fate would have it, Ren had learned to protect himself with martial arts lessons that he attended every day after school and also by joining the university fencing club. Ayla knew about the fencing club because she saw Ren and Seji there on the weekends, but the martial arts lessons were not something she expected and she felt slightly moved by his determination to become stronger.

She did notice that they were spending a lot of time together between the classes they shared and fencing practice. Ren had warmed up to her and told her things about himself that others didn't know. She noticed that he was taking a genuine interest in her by the way he acted whenever they were together. Whether this was a good thing or not, Ayla didn't know, and to be honest, it kind of scared her. One day, after fencing practice, they were sitting outside her apartment having tea when Ren asked her a question she could have gone without hearing.

"So, what is your family like?"

Ayla's eyes grew wide in terror. She turned pale (paler then her normal color at least), and out of nowhere tears started to fall. She dropped the tea bowl and it shattered to the ground.

Ren looked up at her and noticed the reaction she had at the mention of her family. He didn't know quite what to say. He had never expected something like this to happen and hurting Ayla was the last thing in the world that he wanted to do.

He gave her a concerned look as he said gently, "I am so sorry, Ayla, I…"

Ayla cut him off by putting one of her hands across his mouth.

"I don't like to talk about my family. You didn't know that. How could you have known that? Don't blame yourself, it's my problem. All you need to know is that, with the exception of my parents, the rest of my family doesn't believe I exist. They brand me a freak, outcast me, and never interact with me unless they have to."

Her tone was distant when she said this as if she was trying to separate the emotions of the present situation from those in the past. She had turned her chair to the side and was staring at the floor deep in thought. Her hair covered her shoulders and hid the tears that were sliding down her face. Ren got up and walked around the table. He crouched in front of Ayla when he was at her feet. Then he reached up and wiped her tears away with his thumb.

"I am so sorry, Ayla. Believe or not, I don't get along very well with my family either. That's why I didn't even think twice about telling them about the incident with my English teacher. They would have told me it was my fault and nagged me to start living up to my company title. I don't think I've ever heard my mother or father tell me they love me in all of the years I have been alive. They look at me like I am property, something to boost their status. My sister is the only family member who has ever been kind to me and treated me like I was worth something more than my paycheck. So you see Ayla, in some way, I do understand how you feel and I am sorry that you have to deal with something similar."

Ayla looked up at Ren with sadness in her eyes. For the first time she let her mask drop and she showed Ren what she was really feeling.

"Ren…that is terrible. I never realized your family treated you that way. You always act so positive. I would have never imagined that you were outcasted by your own flesh and blood."

Ren nodded and a single tear fell down his right cheek. There was no way Ayla could ever understand the happiness she brought him, even just being his friend. That was more he could say for his parents who were so wrapped up in their own world that they barely acknowledged his existence. Ayla took his hand into hers. She could feel his pain and it was more than she could bear. He was just as lonely as she was. She had finally found someone who understood what it was like to be outcasted by their family. The ties of blood were supposed to overlook everything, so why couldn't her family accept her for who she was? Why couldn't Ren's family love him for being himself? The whole thing was infuriating.

Ren felt Ayla's hand in his own and he couldn't hold back his emotions any longer. He leaned forward and kissed her gently on the mouth shocking himself and Ayla in the process. Ayla's eyes went wide for the briefest of seconds before she broke off the kiss and turned away.

"Ren, I know the way you feel about me but I am afraid your feelings will not be returned."

Ren whipped the tear away and stood up. He felt his entire body go numb at her words but somehow they rung true.

"I don't blame you for saying that. To be honest, I don't know how good of a boyfriend I would make. I've never been loved so how could I ever understand what it feels like to love someone? I've been acting like such a fool. People like me can never know how to love."

Ren turned to walk away but Ayla got up out of her seat and grabbed his arm.

"No Ren! Don't say things like that, those things aren't true! The love you have for me is real! It's real, can't you see? The reason I can't be with you is…I do not know how to love. Part of my curse is that I can't love. So Ren, please don't say those things."

Ren turned to face Ayla. Her tears still fell in waves down her face. He felt guilty that he found her the most beautiful when she cried, but it was only because he didn't see that part of her often. Ren shook Ayla's arm free and turned his back to her.

"I understand, Ayla. You don't want to be together. To be honest, I've always known it wouldn't work out. That doesn't mean that I won't keep trying. You can at least give a pathetic man like me the permission to keep trying, can't you?"

The tears kept pouring from Ayla's eyes. She couldn't manage to make them stop.

"Ren, I am sorry...I can't let you try. You are such a gentle person. You will only get hurt if you try. Please…just promise me that you will always be my friend. I want to go to school with you. I want to see you at the fencing club. I always want you to be a part of my life. Please promise!"

Ren started to walk away but he paused when he reached the sliding door that led to the patio where they had previously been sitting.

"You will always have my friendship whether you like it or not. And unfortunately, you'll always have my love. But if it makes you feel better, I won't ever kiss you or hold you again. And for both of our sakes, let's not mention family either. It just makes us both upset. You have my word that I will always be you friend. You can always count on that."

Ren walked the rest of the way through the patio door and left Ayla alone with her thoughts. Inside he felt a part of himself dying. He couldn't help the person he owed his life to and loved more than anyone in the world and it was making him feel so upset that he literally felt sick to his stomach. Before he left Ayla's apartment he vowed that one day he would help her experience true love even if it wasn't with him. It was painful to think of her with anyone else, but as long as she was happy Ren would feel like he was complete. And who knew? Maybe he would even discover true love for himself in the process.


	13. Fan Girls and Dance Off

A Week In Tokyo

Chapter Thirteen: Fan Girls and Dance Off

2 years later

Ren, Amano, Seji, Takuya and the Gaean men sat on the campus bus that stopped in front of the university housing unit every morning at 9:00 AM like clockwork. Ren was staring out the window of the campus bus with a kind of absent look on his face as the bus took them closer to their destination. He was blushing as he thought about the person he might catch a glimpse of on his way to his class. Despite his efforts he couldn't stop himself from blushing before Seji noticed and nudged him in the side.

"I bet you can't wait to see Ayla"

Ren turned away from the bus window and promptly smacked Seji on top of the head.

"Shut up!"

Seji rubbed the top of his head tenderly and looked up at Ren with one eye closed.

"Ouch! You didn't have to hit me."

Gaddes leaned forward from the seat behind them until his arms were leaning on the back of their bus chair.

"Who is Ayla?" He asked.

"Ren's supposed girlfriend," Seiji replied in a playful tone.

Ren gave Seji a death glare.

"I told you she was a girl and a friend. She's not my girlfriend!"

Seji rolled his eyes.

"Sure she's not. That's why you always get that look on your face when we head to the Natural Science Building. You decided to sign up for all those classes in that building because you did your research and discovered that the majority of her classes are there. That's also why you spend most of your lunch hour in the student union on this side of campus, if I'm not mistaken," he retorted.

Ren gave Seji a noogie. Seji flailed his arms in attempt to get out from under Ren's death lock.

"Alright, alright she's not your girlfriend! You just changed your Major to a Biology Major because you were interested in it. I believe you...I believe you!" He spat.

Ren released Seji when it sounded like he was sincere. Seji rubbed his head tenderly which had now been the victim of two minor head traumas.

"Jesus Ren, you're going to give me brain damage if you keep doing stuff like that."

Amano turned to face Ren. He was sitting in the bus seat across from Ren and Seji's with Takuya, who sat closest to the window.

"Will you two cut it out? You aren't making a very good impression on our new house guests."

Ren blew Amano off and returned to staring out the bus window on his side. Seji gave an awkward smile. He tried to make it as innocent as possible in hopes that Amano would forgive Ren on his behalf as well.

"Sorry Amano. You are right. No more teasing Ren."

As Seji reassured Amano that he would not bring up any more sensitive conversation topics, the campus bus arrived at the north campus entrance where the Natural Science Building was located. The Gaean men were the first to step off of the bus, followed shortly after by Amano and his roommates. They met up with Hitomi and Yukari who were waiting for them by the entrance of the Natural Science Building.

Hitomi greeted everyone and was ready to show them where her classroom was when she noticed a woman with long sandy blond hair that went past her waist, an athletic frame, and beautiful fair skin. She recognized her right away as Ayla Cale Ashantie, the university fencing champion. Ren met her eyes which were covered by a pair of shades and looked away shyly. He never knew quite how to go about talking to her whenever they met up.

Hitomi was the first to notice that Ayla was involved in some kind of fight. A tall man with tattoos down his arms was frowning down at her. He was at least two times her height and had a muscular frame that looked like it could tear through anything. Ayla looked at the man through her sunglasses. She closed her eyes and prepared for the worst. She was light sensitive on this planet and well, let's just say that she didn't like the big fireball in the sky the people on the Mystic Moon called the sun. She was a warrior of the night. She could feel her captor take off her glasses while his other hand held her hands captive above her head.

The Man frowned.

"You know, no one has ever seen your eyes before. What are you hiding?"

Ayla kept her eyes closed and smirked. This made the man angrier.

He shouted, "Open your eyes!"

He roughly put his free hand down her inner thigh and that is when Ayla got mad. She was royalty for heaven's sake! Where did this man get off touching her like she was a common serving girl? She faced the light sensitivity head on and opened her eyes to reveal their cobalt blueness. As she looked around, her eyes instantly began to sting.

"Get your hands off of me!" She shouted, and when the man refused her request she gave him one last warning before she moved to take action.

"I will only say this one more time, you better let go of me now before I make you regret your actions."

She said this in a vapid tone and looked up at her captor. Her eyes stung immensely and her vision began to blur. When her vision cleared up a bit she saw Hitomi and Yukari walking towards her with a group of men following behind them. She glared at the man in front of her. After a few more seconds she had had just about enough of this. She positioned her leg between the man's spread legs. Swiftly and quickly she kneed the man in the crouch as hard as she could. The man slapped her across the face before releasing her. She fell to the ground with a spine-crunching force but it didn't faze her. It was the light that was driving her crazy. She desperately tried to cover her eyes with her hands but it was to no avail.

Ayla stooped to the ground and was frantically looking for her sunglasses. After seconds of not finding them she stood up and bolted out into the street. An oncoming car was fast approaching around the corner the moment she stepped out onto the road.

Hitomi screamed and covered her eyes as Ren yelled, "Ayla Watch out!"

Ayla was ready, and immediately went into tiger position. She jumped up and landed on the slick metallic surface of the car with a loud thud. Everyone who was outside the University heading to their next classes saw what had happened. Some of the students stared in awe, others chose to ignore the event and a few ran to get the campus security guards. Ayla couldn't hold her position on the slick surface much longer before her vision went out and she started falling.

When Gaddes saw her falling he rushed over and caught her before she hit the ground. Ren had run after her too but had only managed to catch the brunt of Ayla's head in his hands, while Gaddes had caught her entire body in his arms. Ren let go of her head when he realized that Gaddes could probably handle carrying her on his own. Ayla reached up and grabbed Gaddes's shirt. She looked like she wanted to say something to him but she fainted instead, causing her to loosen her grip on his shirt collar. Her arm slid down and hung off to the side like a dead tree branch.

Gaddes looked at the limp form in his arms and stiffened. What was he supposed to do with her? He had never been in a situation like this before and to say it was making him uncomfortable would be the understatement of the century. He looked at Van and then scanned the faces of the others for help before Hitomi ran over and said that Ayla needed to go to the campus medical building. Gaddes nodded as she pointed him in the right direction. The others followed Hitomi and Gaddes to the medical building's main office. When they reached entrance of the medical building, Gaddes burst through the lobby door and walked up to the front desk with Ayla's limp form in his arms.

All at once Ayla woke up and was thrashing and screaming out in pain. She took her free arm and with her hand outstretched she pressed it to Gaddes's chest. Suddenly white light poured from her hand and pushed Gaddes back into the nearby wall, making him drop her. Her reflexes took hold as she rolled on the ground and went into a crouched position, looking around her before standing up. They weren't outside any longer but her eyes still stung like hell. She instantly reacted and put her hands over her eyes, tears were starting to fall. Hitomi handed Gaddes her sunglasses. Gaddes was about to give them to her when all of them noticed that she had disappeared.

Not long after Ayla had left the medical building, the campus security showed up and started interrogating Gaddes and Ren about the fight, since they were the last two people who they had witnessed carrying Ayla away from scene. Gaddes and Ren offered the information they could to the campus security guards and when they were satisfied with the answers they received, they left the same way they had come, trying to piece together the details amongst themselves as they walked toward the north end of campus where their main office was located.

It had been a hectic start to the morning but Hitomi was grateful for one thing; everyone had arrived early, which meant that everyone still had a chance of getting to class. She reminded everyone of this detail and they went their separate ways to learn in the Natural Science building since there wasn't much they could do about the fight they witnessed that morning without knowing where Ayla had disappeared to.

Seji and Takuya had their first class together in room 130. It was Biology Concepts and they were always partnered with each other for group projects and homework assignments. Ren and Amano headed to their first class, which was in room 115. It was Chemistry and they often partnered up for experiments and field work. Hitomi and Yukari led the Gaean men to their first class, which was located in room 105. Their class was called Principles of the Nervous System and followed more of a normal class structure than the other science classes did. It was your basic learn the material and then get tested on it course. Now that it was finals week, it was more like a 'cram as much information in your head until the final comes' university class.

As Hitomi and Yukari led the Gaean men through one of the doors on the right hand, Hitomi was surprised to see Ayla slip in through the second door on the other side of the auditorium. When everyone was inside the classroom, the group saw her walk up the stairs to look for an open seat. Ayla caught the group staring at her but she looked away and refused to acknowledge any of them. Ayla didn't say as much as a thank you as she walked as far away from the group as she could manage without looking too conspicuous and sat at the top of the seventh row.

Hitomi and Yukari were noticeably put-off by Ayla's behavior but they tried to keep their comments to themselves as they led the Gaean men to the front of the class. It was an excellent set up because the chairs wrapped around the room in multiple levels inside the large auditorium and the entire front row was now filled with Hitomi, Yukari and the rest of their friends. Hitomi was hoping that by putting them in the front row that they wouldn't get in as much trouble by saying something unnecessary to the other students.

But as the class progressed Hitomi noticed that all the girls who were sitting in the back had moved mysteriously to the other rows of seats the lined the front of the class behind them. She also noticed that all the gothic girls were surrounding Van on his side of the front row, all the cheerleaders were surrounding Allen on his side of the front row, all the bookworm types were surrounding Dryden on his side of the front row, and Gaddes was unfortunately left with everyone else like the D&D nerds, the anime freaks, and all of the other outcasts.

Yukari noticed that all the girls were fawning over them, but it seemed that the Gaean men didn't notice. Ayla was still sitting in the seventh row near the top. She could hear everyone's thoughts, especially what the girls below were thinking. She shuddered as the thoughts poured over her like a wave. After a few more minutes of being drowned in an ocean of foolish desires Ayla shook her head. She had just about enough of listening to Earth women sizing up the men in front of her. She suddenly stood up, glaring at the annoying university women with her icy blue stare.

Gaddes stole a look at Yukari, who was sitting next to him.

"What's her problem?"

Gaddes turned his head back to look at Ayla and found himself staring at her eyes. Something about them made him take in a large breath of air unconsciously. It was if her eyes were pulling him in. He was captivated by them and no matter how much he tried to look away he couldn't. Yukari looked behind her and noticed who Gaddes was referring to. Hitomi looked up at Ayla and answered his previous question.

"Ayla transferred to Tokyo University two years ago. She is the Champion of the fencing club, and even though she leaves class a lot, she seems to get one of the highest scores in all of the university courses she's enrolled in. Apparently she knows Seji and Ren because they are all part of the university fencing club but neither one of them talk about her much. They've never invited her to go on a group outing, so unfortunately that is all I know."

Ayla heard Hitomi and the others talking about her and grunted. That was the last straw. She shook her head and muttered something in a strange language under her breath as she sat back in her chair. She continued to stare at the Earth women around her in disgust.

It was ten minutes into the class and the professor had not shown up yet. It was normal for Dr. Brown to be a few minutes late because he was the typical mad scientist type, always scatterbrained and unsure of what he was doing at the present moment since he was so wrapped up in other scientific thoughts. Today he was especially late and Hitomi wondered if he was going to show up at all. She was about to mention to Yukari that they should just head toward their next class if he didn't come to class within the next ten minutes when she noticed something odd.

All of the men in the class had moved to the top of the auditorium near Ayla and the bottom rows were occupied by the girls. Dryden seemed to have noticed this before she did because he had an amused look on his face and was actually talking to a few of them. You could always leave it to Dryden to break the ice. Hitomi just hoped he wouldn't run his mouth too much and get them into a situation she'd have to bail them out of later. Van was surrounded by just as many women and he looked noticeably uncomfortable.

He leaned in toward Hitomi and asked, "Why are all these Earth women staring at us?"

Hitomi laughed.

"Well Van, I guess it is because you look different. They are not used to seeing…"

Her voice trailed off into oblivion. She was obviously having trouble finding the best way to mention that Van and his friends did not look like the typical university students.

Before she could think of the politically correct thing to say, Yukari chirped in rather unexpectedly, "Hot models!"

After Yukari's little outburst all the girls in the auditorium squealed in delight. Gaddes didn't seem interested in the multitudes of girls surrounding him. He watched as Ayla left the room and sighed. Allen finally noticed all of the attention their group was getting and smiled at the women behind him.

She scooted in close to him and asked, "What product do you wear in your hair? It smells so lovely."

Before Allen could answer Van jabbed him in the ribs.

"I'm sure Eries would just LOVE to know that her husband was flirting with Earth woman when we get back to Gaea."

Allen shot Van an icy look.

"You wouldn't dare tell her."

Van didn't answer. He only gave a sly grin. Allen promptly got out of his seat and traded places with Gaddes. He knew that the kind of woman sitting there would be too shy to talk to him so he wouldn't have to worry about making small talk. Gaddes traded seats without really thinking about the consequences of it. He was still thinking about Ayla, which clouded his judgment as he sat in female pheromone central. The same cheerleader that had tried to pick up on Allen leaned over the seat and bashed her eyelashes at him.

"Hey, you're pretty cute too, in the rugged outdoors way. Are you the type of man who likes adventure?"

Whatever feelings Gaddes had felt for Ayla immediately evaporated into thin air. Or so he told himself. Gaddes was a walking mass of male testosterone and any woman who wanted his special attention got it. He turned around in his seat and gave the cheerleader his most dashing smile.

"I do like adventure and I think I'd like it even more if I had you to share it with."

The cheerleader blushed and fumbled around in her bag for something to write with. When she found a pen, she scribbled her phone number one of the pages of her notebook and handed it to Gaddes. Gaddes wasn't sure what the Earth custom of handing someone a piece of paper meant, but he put it in his jean pocket and smiled at her flirtatiously.

"I'll keep it with me always."

The other girls in the auditorium were silent while this was taking place. It was like they were watching an Asian drama brought to life in front of them. When Gaddes gave the cheerleader his last line, they all cheered and huddled in closer to the Gaean men. Van was even more uncomfortable than he had been before.

He looked at Hitomi and said, "I think we should leave class, Hitomi. We are attracting way more attention than we should."

Hitomi nodded and turned to Yukari.

"Van is right. We need to get them out of here. I'm starting to think that bringing them to school might not have been the best idea."

Yukari agreed as she helped Hitomi round up the Gaean men and direct them towards the exit of the auditorium. Waves of girls were following them as they stepped outside, onto the courtyard of the North Campus. Hitomi looked behind her and sighed.

"Let's just hope they don't follow us to our next class. Fortunately, it's on the South end of the campus so I don't think they will pursuit us much longer."

Everyone agreed in their own way, except for Gaddes who was disappointed that he wasn't going to get any more action with the ladies. Hitomi and Yukari led the group to another campus bus stop. The bus came and they all boarded. Van and the other Gaean men used the campus bus passes that had been given to them earlier to get on the bus that headed to the north end of the campus, and Hitomi and Yukari used their own campus bus passes.

The bus stopped in front of an old building with hundreds of Ivy branches running up the sides of it. They got off two at a time and headed toward the building, with Hitomi leading the way. Van was behind Hitomi with Yukari and the rest of the Gaean men. He sped up so that he was walking beside her.

He leaned in towards her and asked, "So is that how all of your classes are, Hitomi? You just show up to one class and then go to the other? Your learning rituals seem odd to me."

Hitomi chuckled.

"No Van, usually teachers show up and teach a lesson. The students take notes and are usually quizzed for it later. Sometimes the students have to write a paper or do a group project. The teacher just didn't show up today. Dr. Brown has the tendency of being a little scatter brained."

Van pondered this.

"Hmm. He sounds a lot like Dryden, to be honest."

Dryden grunted behind them but didn't say anything else. Hitomi tried her best not to laugh but Van caught her smile and he knew that she had gotten the joke. Hitomi was starting to like Van's emerging sense of humor. She hoped he wouldn't lose it at some point down the road and return to the old Van who was so battle hardened that humor was lost on him when it was told. His love for Hitomi had definitely changed him. He was more mature and acted kinder towards others. He was willing to accept who he was and love others the same way he was starting to gain confidence in himself. He even welcomed the idea of having friends and family at his side, something he wasn't as hesitant to do when she had first met him.

To her, Van was perfect and she blushed thinking about how she had been able to make such a big change in him just by giving him her heart. Van looked at Hitomi with his chocolate eyes warmly. She was blushing about something but he wasn't sure what had made her face turn that color so fast. He smiled and took her hand into his. Hitomi cheeks reddened further. They were silent as they walked hand-in-hand with the group of men and Yukari following behind them.

They finally reached the front doors of the Ivy covered building and walked through them. The group took the stairs to the second floor of the Liberal Arts building. Hitomi let go of Van's hand when they entered a classroom with the numbers 207 written on the door. She led the Gaean men to the front row and sat them in a row of seats nearest to the whiteboard. This class was set up different than the last one held in the Natural Science Building's auditorium. There were eight long tables that were set up in eight rows and at each of the tables there were fifteen uniform brown seats pulled up to them.

The professor was already in the classroom when the group showed up and was scribbling something in a notebook on her desk. Just as they sat down, the professor decided to start her lesson. Yukari instructed the Gaean men to be quiet during the lesson unless the teacher called on them or they raised their hands. They all agreed.

The professor clapped her hands together and smiled at the class warmly. Van liked the energy of this teacher and was glad that Hitomi was fortunate enough to have her. The professor looked out at all of her students and beamed.

"Alright class! Today we are going to write poems and share them with the class. But before we begin, I would like Hitomi Kanzaki to recite the poem she prepared for class last week. Hitomi; please come to the front of the class."

Hitomi immediately turned beet red. She had completely forgotten that it was her turn to share a poem with the class. She was used to speaking in front of large crowds of people, so it wasn't being in front of the class that made her nervous. Rather, it was the subject of the poem that made her embarrassed to read it. If Van had not shown up, she could have read it without thinking twice but now that he was sitting in the audience, she felt her nerves getting the best of her.

She looked at her professor and smiled weakly.

"Alright Dr. Jonas. Just give me a minute to get it out of my backpack."

Hitomi knew she didn't have a choice. If she didn't read her poem, she would get points marked off her final project, so she grabbed her poem from her three-ring binder and slowly made her way to the front of the class. She turned around clutching the poem in her hands and tried her best not to look at Van when she read it. She started to read when Dr. Jonas told her to begin. She had actually thought of a tune for her poem, so she closed her eyes and began to recite it in a haunting melody.

Was it a dream or maybe a vision? No, it was real.

The way he held me under the moonlight,

The way his eyes casted their spell,

The way I felt speechless,

From words he could not tell.

But he didn't have to say them,

I saw his heart's desire,

Every moment he held me in his arms,

My soul burned as if on fire.

Was it a dream or maybe an illusion? No, that can't be.

His eyes masked his sadness,

When they stared down at me,

They searched for an answer that I could not give,

They gave me something to hope for,

They showed me how to live.

But he didn't need an answer,

He loved me how I was,

He kissed me with his gentle lips,

I gave him all my trust.

Was it a dream or maybe a nightmare? No, it was too sad for that.

The night he sent me to my home,

I only saw his back,

But I could hear him crying,

I felt like crying too,

I didn't want to leave him,

That was something that he knew.

But he didn't have a choice,

He had to set me free,

He had to give up his desire,

And walk away from me.

Was it a dream or maybe a fantasy? Perhaps it was a little bit of both.

We decided to put the past behind us,

We knew we loved each other most,

No matter what the distance was,

No matter what the cost,

Our love was something to be treasured,

And its warmth could not be lost.

And as the years went by,

His love for me grew strong,

And I just kept on loving him;

Nothing could break our bond.

When Hitomi was finished reciting her poem, the entire class broke out in applause. A few of the students even gave her a standing ovation. Hitomi felt her heart flutter with excitement as she looked over the faces of her friends. Yukari clapped her hands above her head as she gave Hitomi a wink. Allen gave her a golf clap and nodded approvingly. Dryden and Gaddes were two of the many people in the class who gave her a standing ovation as they clapped. Hitomi reluctantly turned her gaze to Van. He was staring at her breathless. He didn't realize that she felt that deeply about him after all of those years and he had discovered through reciting her poem that she had one of the most beautiful voices he had ever heard. Van felt his chest burning with desire for her but he knew he couldn't do anything until the class was released for the day. He just stared at her with his intense brown eyes and smiled passionately as he finally managed to snap out of his trance and clap his hands together.

Hitomi inwardly felt relieved. She was glad that her poem hadn't upset Van in any way. In fact, he looked as though he really enjoyed it. Dr. Jonas thanked Hitomi for reading her poem to the class when the applause had settled down and told her to return to her seat. Hitomi bowed and did as she was told. She felt Van's eyes on her as she sat down. Van couldn't look away from her even if he tried. He was totally captured by the spell of her poem. Hitomi blushed when she noticed his attention but kept quiet because Dr. Jones had moved on to explain the poetry assignment for the day to the class.

"Now that we have had an excellent start to the lesson, I want everyone in the class to write a poem about someone they know. When you are finished, get a partner to revise the poem for you and then we will have everyone recite their poems to the class. Get in to your regular poetry workshop groups and remember to follow the creative writing process."

The students murmured words of acknowledgment and started to gather in their usual groups of four. Yukari and Hitomi usually worked together, so that left the four Gaean men to discuss what they wanted to write about amongst themselves. Van broke his gaze with Hitomi to work on the poetry assignment the teacher had just given to the class. He had to write something that was going to captivate Hitomi the same way she had mesmerized him with her words. Allen decided to write a poem about Eries since he figured he could use it as a way to get himself out of something if he happened to say something stupid to her when he returned to the palace. Dryden decided to write a poem about Millerna for no other reason than he thought it would be amusing to capture her personality in a short piece of writing. Gaddes decided to write a poem about Ayla because there was something about her eyes that captivated him and he thought it would make a good subject for a poem.

When the students were finished writing their poems and getting them revised, Dr. Jonas went around the room and had each of her students recite them to the class. Allen was the first to go, since he was the first student in the first row. When the teacher called on him, he nodded and began to read.

She is a vision of starlight,

The only rose in a garden of lilies,

The only lighthouse shining out to the sea,

The only woman who could ever mean something to me.

She is the dream of youth,

And the promise of life,

She is the only woman I will take as my wife.

She is a daydream of summer,

She is a breath of fresh air,

Her laughter is smooth running water,

Her eyes two candles that gleam a green glare.

She is a memory of home,

She is the future I found,

She is the present that whispers of past lives profound.

When Allen was done with his poem the classroom thundered with applause. Allen bowed politely and sat back in his seat. Next, it was Dryden's turn. He stood up from his place at the table and cleared his throat a few times before he began.

Ah, where to begin?

I could start with the way you throw furniture,

When I'm rattling off another one of my schemes,

But why start there?

Can't we talk things over?

I'd rather start with the way you pout,

Yes, the way you pout for weeks,

When I go out of town,

And don't tell you where I am going,

Or where I have been,

Or where I might be going on the next trip.

Your expression is priceless every time;

If only I could sell THAT instead of my useless trinkets.

Alas! Business calls and you are angry again.

You are holding the fine dinnerware in your arms,

And tossing it at me with furious aim.

But I am good at dodging!

I'd have to be by now.

We've gone through lots of dinnerware,

In all the years we've been wed.

But quite honestly,

I find it cute,

The way you throw things,

The way you pout,

The way you never let me forget a mistake.

This is what they call marriage.

If you don't know what you're in for,

Then don't sign the contact.

I'm a happy signer,

I would sign that form again,

For even just one night of seeing her lose her temper,

Despite all of

The thrown pots,

The stamping of feet,

The misplaced furniture,

The broken dishes,

Because at the end of the day,

The beast inside her calms down,

And the only thing left for her to do,

Is embrace me with her smile.

The class erupted in laughter when Dryden had finished reciting his poem and then gave him a round of applause. Many of the young men in the class sympathized with him. They had girlfriends of their own and they knew exactly what he meant about dealing with a woman's temper. Dryden drank in all of the applause and then gave a small bow before returning to his seat.

The next person to recite a poem was Gaddes. The subject matter was a little serious considering it was written by him, but hey it was a poetry class and anything flew when it came to creative writing. He stood up from his chair and began to read when the applause had died down.

Cobalt blue;

The color of love.

I never knew love had a color until I met her.

I knew it had a taste,

Yes, the taste was always cinnamon.

I knew it had a smell,

Yes, it always smelled of baked bread.

I knew it had a feeling,

Yes, the feeling was always stale.

But when I saw that cobalt blue,

My senses changed.

Now love tastes like a sunset,

And smells like chocolate,

And looks like a glistening stream in the fall.

Love feels like two bodies under black silk,

And sounds like rain pouring over emerald hills,

And it has a color, yes it has a color,

Cobalt blue,

Like the eyes that awakened my heart.

The students around the class gave him a big round of applause and some even whistled. Gaddes noticed that one of the students who had whispered was the cheerleader from earlier. He winked at her as he sat back down.

The next person to read their poem was Van, and honestly he was nervous. He wanted to write something that would do Hitomi justice and he was hoping that this poem was enough to do the trick. He sat up cautiously from his seat and turned to face Hitomi. He began to recite his poem to the tune of an old Fanelian folk song his mother used to sing to him when he was young.

White feathers hold distant memories,

The memories of joining hands in ancient stairwells,

The feeling of kissing on grassy knolls,

The smell of the rain and spring around us,

The desire to see your eyes locked with mine.

White feathers hide true feelings,

The love I hold with weakening hands,

The fear I have of misplacing it,

The taste of defeat when I see your tears,

The obsession I have with holding you close.

White feathers hold secret passions,

The feeling I have when you tend to my wounds,

The thanks I have when you mend my heartache,

The sound of your voice filling my soul,

The comfort that you'll never leave.

When he was done singing all of the girls in the class got up from their seats and practically fell over the tables they were seated at they were clapping so hard. All of the male students applauded as well, but their reactions were not as impulsive. Van didn't care about all of the attention he was receiving. His focus was entirely on Hitomi. Hitomi felt the waves of passion stirring within her. Was this how her poem had made him feel? Van was staring at her with desire in his eyes so she guessed that it must be the case. Van bowed politely before sitting back in his seat. The girls in the class continued to cheer.

Since Hitomi had already shared a poem with the class, the teacher skipped over her and asked Yukari to recite hers. Yukari stood up after the applause died down and recited a poem she had written about Amano.

What do I give the man who has everything?

I'll give him a red star made of dreams,

I'll climb to the tallest mountain and pull it down for him to hold.

If the star is out of my reach,

I'll give him a stone pulled from a river,

And polish it with my tears.

If I've forgotten how to cry,

I'll give him promises baked in bread,

With all of the most delicious fruits kneaded in.

If I can't find fruit that's in season,

I'll give him a ring of trust forged from my heart,

Lined with precious stones at every turn.

If I can't find precious stones,

I will give him my soul wrapped in silk,

And covered with a thousand roses.

If I can't find a garden of roses,

He can have my love,

Priceless,

Simple,

Elegant,

A lost treasure in a sea of broken artifacts,

Easily replaced.

When Yukari was finished with her poem, all of the men stood up and cheered. Yukari was always a class favorite and she had many admirers, despite the fact that she was in a serious relationship with Amano. The girls applauded her poem too, but they were not as enthusiastic as the men. They were still thinking about the haunting words of Van's poem and swooning over the sound of his voice.

Dr. Jonas called on the rest of the students one by one and they each recited their poems. When he last person finished, the class was over and the students turned in their in class poetry assignments. Hitomi also turned in her assigned poem from last week, as Yukari was assigned the class poem to read at the next gathering.

Intermediate Poetry was the last class of the day for Hitomi and Yukari, so they decided to take the Gaean men to the Akihabara district to play some video games and learn about the anime and cosplay culture. Amano and his roommates met up with Hitomi and the others there since their classes for the day had been completed as well. Yukari had called them when they reached the fist the first stores on the stretch and the group had gone into a few stores while they waited for them to arrive. Amano and his roommates met up with the group in a maid café called Mia's Cosplay café. When Takuya saw Hitomi he immediately walked over and gave her a small kiss on the cheek.

"It's great to see you, Tomi. I'm glad that we get to hang out for a little bit today."

Takuya gave Van a look like, 'look what I did and there is nothing you can do about it without upsetting Hitomi so ha to you!' Van shot Takuya a death glare. Things had been going so well between him and Hitomi up until that point and now that punk had the nerve to do something like this. He tried to brush off Takuya's behavior like it was nothing, but when he saw him put his arm around Hitomi's shoulders in a 'friendly' way, Van couldn't stand it anymore.

"Hitomi, tell this Earth man that he shouldn't be so friendly with you when your boyfriend is standing two feet away."

Hitomi smiled at Takuya apologetically and gently removed his arm from her shoulder.

"Takuya, I know this is the way you usually say hello to me, and I'm used to it now, but I think it makes Van uncomfortable so would you mind just giving me a handshake from now on?"

A victory smile washed across Van's face when he heard Hitomi's words, but it didn't last for long. Takuya shook Hitomi's hand and winked at her, causing her to giggle in spite of herself.

"For you my lady, I would walk to the ends of the Earth, no the universe, if you told me to. Whatever you're heart's desire, I will make your dreams come true."

Takuya kissed Hitomi's hand and looked straight up at Van. That was the last straw for Fanelia's king. He took a white handkerchief out of his pocket and threw it on the floor. Allen covered his mouth in shock, and Dryden and Gaddes exchanged concerned glances. Amano had heard about this Gaean custom from Hitomi so he was nervous when he saw Van throw the white handkerchief on the ground. Takuya and the others obviously had no idea what the gesture meant, but judging by the look on everyone's faces, it couldn't be good. Van continued to frown as he stared deep into Takuya's eyes.

"I challenge you to a duel for Hitomi's honor. The winner gets to hold her hand and be as friendly with her as often as they like. The loser has to accept this and back off. I'm calling you out, Takuya. We settle this NOW, like men."

Allen slapped the side of his head in a combination of worry and frustration. Didn't Van realize what he was getting himself into? The Earth men didn't understand anything about sword fighting. If Van had a one-on-one duel with Takuya, he was sure to win and do more damage to him than just cutting his pride down a few notches. Dryden seemed to be thinking along the same lines and mouthed to Van when he looked over at him 'what the heck do you think you are you doing?' Van ignored Dryden's question and continued to stare at Takuya menacingly.

Fortunately for everyone, Amano thought of the perfect solution at just that moment. It was a good thing too, because judging the way that Van was staring at Takuya, he looked like he really meant to injure more than his pride. Amano stood between the two rivals and put in his two cents.

"Listen, if it is a duel that you both want, then I suggest you challenge each other to a game of DDR. Takuya and Van don't know anything about the game, so they will both be at a disadvantage. However wins the most rounds in the allotted time frame will win the challenge. Does this sound like something the competitors would be interested in?"

Takuya gave a mischievous smile.

"I'm up for it if your cousin thinks he has what it takes to beat me in a challenge."

Van clenched his fists.

"I will do anything to win Hitomi's affection. I accept this challenge willingly."

Amano sighed a breath of relief.

"Good! The competition has been decided and the competitors have accepted it. Hitomi, why don't you buy some water bottles for Van and Takuya? I will give you enough money to buy them each five. DDR is a strenuous game and I don't want to see any of our competitors passing out in the middle of it."

Hitomi nodded as Amano threw her his wallet.

"Go ahead and use the twenty dollar bill that's in there."

Hitomi gave Amano a salute and walked to a nearby food court with Yukari following behind her. The two girls decided to buy the water from a popular burger stand called Enigo's since they always had them in stock. The two girls each returned after a few minutes of shopping, holding five water bottles in their arms. Hitomi tossed Amano his wallet the moment she got back, and he placed it in his back pocket.

"Very good! Thank you for helping out with the cause Yukari and Hitomi. Now the competition can begin!"

Amano led the group to a large arcade near the central part of the Akihabara district. Every game you could possibly imagine was crammed inside of it, including a few games that were still in the development stage. Amano led everyone through the maze of arcade systems to the DDR machine, which was located near the back. When they reached it, Amano had Van get on the dance pad on one side and Takuya get on the dance pad of the other. Hitomi brought her five water bottles over to Van's side, and Yukari brought her five water bottles over to Takuya's. Seji explained how the game worked to the competitors and let them dance a few practice rounds before the official competition began.

When each of the men had gotten used to the format of the game, Amano walked over and explained the rest of the rules.

"Alright men, here is how things are going to go down. You have twenty minutes to win as many of these dance competitions as you can. The winner gets Hitomi's affection. The loser has to remain a loyal friend. Do you both agree to the terms and conditions of the challenge?"

Both Van and Takuya nodded without taking their eyes off of the dance screen. Both men were determined to win at all costs. Amano nodded.

"Then if everything is understood, let the challenge BEGIN!"

Van and Takuya immediately decided on the first song. They began dancing to _End of the Century_ in perfect unison. Neither of the men missed a single step. Hitomi was surprised at how well Van was adapting to the game, especially since it was his first time encountering something like it in her world. The way he danced was hypnotizing and she couldn't take her eyes off of him. Van noticed that all of his attention was on her and it gave him the motivation to keep dancing without missing a single step. The song came to a close and both he and Takuya got the highest rating. The first competition was a tie. This didn't shake either of the men. They quickly chose their next song_, Butterfly_, and hit the begin button underneath their feet.

At this point, their dance competition had attracted a bunch of onlookers, especially teenage girls who were squealing in delight at the two hot men dancing to the flashy techno beat in front of them. Gaddes and Allen were pretty impressed that Van could dance so well. To their knowledge, Van didn't dance at all, so this was a new aspect of his personality they were pleased to find out about. Dryden was pretty impressed by Van's dance moves as well. To be more accurate, Dryden had already been impressed by Van when he sang for Hitomi during her poetry class, but this was the icing on the cake. _There isn't much you wouldn't do for her is there?_ Dryden mused to himself as he watched the young king excel at another dance challenge.

Van and Takuya had also tied at the end of the second challenge, but none of them would accept defeat. They quickly chose the next song. This time they were dancing to a song called _Ecstasy_. Van shot a momentary glance at Hitomi who was watching him dance as though she was under a spell. Her devotion made him try something risky. He put his legs up on the machine and used it to help him to a flip. He landed in the exact poison of the arrows of the song and continued to dance. The fan girls behind him squealed in delight. Takuya spat on the ground and took off his shirt. He wasn't going to let this pretty boy show him up. Takuya lifted himself up on the bar behind him and did a flip back down onto the dance pad. He made all of the arrows with little difficulty. The fan girls behind him were cheering louder. Before any of them could try out any more of their moves, the third son came to a close. Both men got the highest score and the third round was officially a tie.

This didn't shake either one of them. They were both determined to get Hitomi's love, no matter what the cost was. They scrolled through the list of songs and decided to dance to one called _In the Navy_. Both Van and Takuya selected the song and pressed the begin icon underneath their feet. Amano warned them that this was probably going to be their last song and they nodded in response, completely ready to destroy the other competitor as the arrows began to fall on the screen. Takuya was the first to do a breakdance move called the Twister on the dance platform. As he propelled his legs around him, he stopped to get the arrows in the set and made a perfect score. The crowd around them grew larger and the teenage girls squealed louder than they had before.

Van was not impressed at all. He had something up his sleeve; something that was going to win him this competition. He was going to use a Fanelian folk dance move called the _Song of the Dragon_ to wipe that smug look off of Takuya's face with. He began by getting on his back and moving his hands and feet in the pattern they needed to be in from a sort of upraised position, similar to the crab walk. Then he lifted the front end of his body up to its normal position without so much as grabbing the bar behind him for support. He finished the move by doing a flip and landing in the splits. He slid himself up and continued dancing. The fan girls behind him went wild. They were tearing at their hair and screaming at the top of their lungs.

Just then, the song stopped and Amano announced that the competition was officially over. The two men eagerly awaited their final score; it was the score that would determine the winner of the competition. Both of their hearts sank when they saw that it was a tie. No one man could out dance the other. Amano was as shocked at the results as they were. The crowd of people had started to disperse behind them when they realized they weren't going to see any more dance moves. Amano looked at both men and tried to determine the best thing to do. Then he had an idea.

"Since you have both tied, I think the winner should be chosen by Hitomi, since she IS part of the competition in her own way."

Amano turned towards Hitomi and gestured for her to choose the official winner. Before she could name the official victor, Takuya cut her off and hoped off the machine, carrying the five water bottles she had bought for him in his arms.

"I don't care who the winner is, to be honest. We had a good competition. Let's just leave it at that. If you guys want to find me, I'll be back at our place. I'll catch you guys later."

Takuya gave a short wave and walked to the city bus stop carrying the water bottles in his arms like they were his greatest treasure. Hitomi was a little sad to see him leave, but she knew that Takuya could take care of himself and she had nothing to worry about. Van got off the dance stage and frowned as Takuya got on the bus.

"I can't believe it; he actually walked away before Hitomi could make a decision. That means that we are still officially tied. That clever…orange headed…of all the crazy hair-brained ideas…"

Van was trying to calm himself down but it wasn't working very well. Hitomi knew there was only one thing that could snap him out of his current state. She took his hand in her own and leaned forward to kiss his cheek. When her lips touched the side of his face, Van stopped rambling off angry statements and blushed.

"Van, please don't be mad anymore. Let's just enjoy the rest of the day. Will you do that for me?"

Hitomi looked at Van with her big, green, puppy dog eyes and Van couldn't refuse her request.

"Alright, Hitomi, I promise to enjoy the rest of the day with you. No more thinking about the competition between me and Takuya. You have my word."

Hitomi's smile lit up the room and he knew he had made the right decision to obey his lady's request. The group explored some more shops in the Akihabara district at Yukari's request. She wanted to check out a store that allowed customers to try on cosplay outfits and take group photos for a small fee. The Gaean men weren't sure what Cosplay was, but most of the costumes in the store didn't look too different than the formal outfits people wore on their home world so it was easy for them to pick the costumes that they wanted to wear.

Allen chose a replica of Edward's costume from Full Metal Alchemist. When he put it on, everyone in the store couldn't get over how much he looked like the character. People stopped by and took pictures every once in a while and Allen posed for the camera. Dryden dressed up as Vampire Hunter D. The shop owners were impressed at how similar he looked to the character and were taking their own photos to keep as mementos for their family members who enjoyed anime culture as well as their friends. Van dressed up in Heero's pilot outfit found in the show Gundam Wing. A bunch of fan girls gathered around and squealed when they saw him. He was the spitting image of the character, save his hair color. The shop owners took many pictures of Van and even asked if they could put some of them on their store's website. Van said he didn't mind if they used them and the shop owners immediately posted them on the web.

The next to get dressed up was Gaddes. The shop owners suggested that he should cosplay as a character named Auron from Final Fantasy X. Gaddes put on the costume and stepped out. It was like another miracle transformation took place. Gaddes looked so much like the character that fan girls kept coming to the window and staring at him. People were taking pictures all over the place, including the shop owners who also wanted a picture of Gaddes on their website. Gaddes agreed and the shopkeeper placed his picture next to Van's on the web. Amano decided to stick with the video game theme so he dressed up as Dart from The Legend of Dragoon. Seji liked that idea and dressed up as Llyod from Legend of Dragoon. Ren dressed up as Sora from Kingdom Hearts keeping with the video game theme that had men set into motion by Gaddes. Their costumes also drew a lot of attention from onlookers on the streets and people were pulling them in every direction to get pictures.

The shop owners suggested that Yukari and Hitomi should dress up as characters from an anime called Chobits. Hitomi dressed as Chi and Yukari dressed as Freya. Both of them wore the Chobits trademark wigs and when they stepped out, they looked like the spitting image of the characters, like they had jumped out of the pages of the manga and came to life for the first time. They attracted a lot of attention from a group of men outside the shop window, which didn't seem to amuse Van or Amano in the least as their girls were the subject of the other men's ogling, but they were able to curb their jealousy a bit since Hitomi and Yukari looked very cute in their costumes and they were lucky enough to see them dressed up.

When everyone had found the costume that suited them they gathered together in a group shot and said cheese! Copies of the photos were made for everyone, even Takuya, who had ducked out on them earlier. The costumes were returned shortly after and the shopkeepers told them that they could come back any time. After they left the store, the group decided that they should go to another maid café, since they had had such a great experience the first time they went while they were waiting for Amano and the others to show up. The maid café they found was called Café Le Beau and it also had butlers. The maids immediately went to work making the men feel at home, while the butlers took Hitomi and Yukari by the hand and treated them like princesses.

Van was amused by the setup of the maid café, because where he was from he was literally a king and getting service like this was something normal. Allen and Dryden also were amused at this because they were the second and first kings in the line for Asturian the throne and this was the usual service they got in the palace. To be honest, Amano, Seji, and Ren were also used to this kind of treatment, coming from rather wealthy families themselves, but Hitomi, Yukari, and Gaddes were eating up all of the treatment like nothing else. Hitomi and Yukari both came from middleclass families and treatment like what the butlers were given them was something they could only imagine in their wildest dreams. Gaddes was the head admiral of the Asturian Unified Army but his rank only bought him occasional visits to the palace, so treatment like the kind he was getting was a rare treat. He secretly wished there was something like a maid café on Gaea but he kept his thoughts to himself. He didn't want Allen or the others to think he was not grateful for his position so he just sat and drank up all the attention the female maids were giving him.

A few of the maid suggested that they should have a karaoke session where everyone in the group got up on the stage and sung to an anime theme song. Everyone agreed that this would be an excellent idea and got up with the maids on the stage. The group's first song was theme song to Gundam Wing. The words scrolled across a screen hanging on the far wall and they read them off in unison. The second song was the theme song to Magic Knight Rayearth. Again, the words popped up on the screen and the group sung along with them. The third song was the ending theme of Outlaw Star.

The maids called a girl's only karaoke and Hitomi and Yukari sung along to the haunting melody. They even harmonized which made the song seem even more impressive. When the third song ended the fourth was put on. It was the opening theme song to Naruto. The maids called a guy's only karaoke session and all the guys sang along doing their best to harmonize, but it was obvious that some of the men had more vocal training than others. It didn't matter to them in the least; everyone was having a great time and everyone in the group agreed that it was fun listening to all of the songs.

That was the last song in the karaoke hour so the group got off the stage and thanked the maids and butlers for their services. The maids and butlers smiled at their clients and said, "Anything to please you, masters!" The group waved goodbye to the maids and butlers in the café and wandered off to other parts of the Akihabara district.

Hours passed as the group went to a dozen arcades, cosplay shops, and other attractions that made the Akihabara district one of the most coveted places to visit in Japan. Eventually it turned dark outside and Ren suggested that the group should visit a new theme park that had opened in the area. Ren bought the tickets for everyone and the group entered through a large ticket booth station that stretched to the right and left of the theme park. The group entered through the metal gates that sat between each of the individual ticket booths.

Once inside, Ren suggested that they should go on the rides that were built for night comers such as themselves. They started out with a ride called the Flame Thrower which had flashing lights and threw its occupants unto the air in rotating carts that wheeled around it. The Gaean men liked the Flame Thrower because it was unlike any of the entertainment devices they had back on Gaea.

It seemed like the people of Earth liked to be scared out of their wits as a source of amusement and they soon learned why; it was exhilarating getting tossed into the air and then coming back down unexpectedly. It was unlike anything the men had ever experienced and this time they agreed with Dryden's desire to build similar models in an amusement park in his kingdom. Dryden was a bit surprised that they didn't argue with him about it at first but once the shock wore off he was happy that they had finally all reached common ground on something.

The group must have ridden on twelve different rides ranging in names from The Tumbler to The Ice Cannon. Finally, Seji suggested that the group ride on the Wheel of Fortune, which as the title of it implied, was a Ferris wheel. Hitomi and Van got into one cart. Amano and Yukari got into the cart behind them. Allen shared a cart with Gaddes. Dryden shared a car with Ren, and Seji took a cart up by himself because he liked it best that way. In fact, every time Amano and the others happened to go to an amusement park, Takuya never got to ride the Ferris wheel with anyone because Amano generally sat with Ren since they were similar in age, and Seji insisted on taking the cart up by himself, which always left Takuya as the odd man out. Seji thought about this and mused to himself that maybe it was a good idea that he had left earlier since he was sure Takuya wouldn't have been happy to be the odd man out again with such a large group of people.

Finally, the group decided it was time to leave the amusement park and go their separate ways. Amano and his roommates took the city bus back to their campus housing unit with Van and all of his friends. Hitomi and Yukari took the city bus back to their apartment and they immediately crashed in their respective rooms as soon as they got in.

Back at Amano's place, all of the men had gone to bed, except for Van who decided he needed to get some kind of revenge on Takuya for the stunt he had pulled earlier. Van took a black marker off of one of the desks in the computer room and snuck downstairs with it pulled tightly against his chest. He snuck around each of the corners Mission Impossible style until he reached the base of the stairs. Normally, Van wouldn't have had to journey to the first level of the house since Takuya's room was on the second floor, but he had fallen asleep on the downstairs couch before any of them had gotten home so Van saw it as his opportunity to show Takuya which man was right for Hitomi.

Van snuck up to the sleeping form of Takuya and grinned evilly as he uncapped the permanent marker. He went to work drawing as many designs as he could get away with without waking Takuya up. When he was satisfied with his handiwork, he placed the cap back on the permanent marker and stole back up the stairs like a cheesy villain from a Disney movie. Van settled into his place on the upstairs living room floor after putting the marker away and closed his eyes. He was finally ready to go to sleep.


	14. The Twins and the Atlantis Pendant

Author's Note: This chapter was inspired by Chronicles of Narnia music, Asian candy, and random trips to Michael's. Don't ask. It's time that we get into Charden's head! Are you ready? Don't worry if you don't understand him. I don't think he really understand himself either.

A Week in Tokyo

Chapter Fourteen: The Twins and the Atlantis Pendant

It was the evening after Charden had talked with his father about getting revenge on all of the people of Gaea using the Tarndulosk and Kebarean Pendant. Instead of heading straight to Egzardia like Charden had originally intended to do, he was paid a visit by someone he could have gone without seeing. The man had been summoned by Vlad to help Charden with his mission, which set him back a day because he had to prepare a second horse and pack extra provisions for the additional traveler.

Charden was still in a bad mood due to the orders his father had given him to steal the remaining Atlantis Pendants from Egzardia and Basram. He thought it would be a better idea if his father just let him invade the neighboring kingdoms with their family's personal army. Charden was confident that he could use his extensive knowledge of military warfare to pressure the rulers of the adjacent kingdoms to bend to their family's will by force. In his mind, all of his father's plotting didn't seem to be getting them anywhere.

However, Charden knew he would never convince his father to do something like that. His father was the type of man who was always thinking up schemes that were part of a larger strategy. Charden was rarely filled in on all of the details of Vlad's plans. At least this time Charden had some idea of what was going on, although he still didn't understand why his father didn't just send him to start a war with the neighboring kingdoms. Charden felt like it was pointless to keep taking all of these unnecessary precautions.

To say that Charden was frustrated with the orders his father had given him the night before would not be enough to describe the battlefield of emotions that was raging in his mind. All he knew was that somehow his father's personal vendetta with Fanelia had grown to be a personal vendetta with the entire world of Gaea. He didn't know the exact reason for his father's anger, but he guessed a lot of it had to do with the things he had been upset about long before he had become a member of the Fanelian Royal Council.

Charden and his family had originally come from Zaibach. His family lived in the palace of Emperor Dornkirk because his father had one of the highest positions in the Empire. Vladimir Kent was originally the Head Sorcerer for the Zaibach Empire and answered directly to Dornkirk during the Gaean War. He was responsible for inventing the liquid metal technology and upgraded Guymelef modifications that made the Empire as deadly as it was during that time. When the Allied World Forces had defeated Zaibach and reduced it to nothing more than a pile of rubble, Vladimir found himself without a job or a kingdom to live in. He moved his family to Fanelia because he heard that it had a wealth of energists in the surrounding valleys, which he needed for his scientific research.

Eventually, because of his family ties and wealth, Vladimir managed to become the head of the Fanelian Royal Council. He brought five war orphans with him to Fanelia. The five young men each came from wealthy families in Zaibach and Vlad raised them like they were his own family. When the boys came of age, he gave them high seats on the Fanelian Royal Council since he knew he could use them later on. They were the same five men who were expelled from the royal council for their loyalty to Vlad before Van and the others got transported to the Mystic Moon. Vlad sent the men to dispose of Van and his companions during their ill-fated hunting trip, knowing that the ex-council members would more than likely fail their mission and die at the young king's hands. The ex-council members were merely a distraction so Vlad could lure Van's hunting party to the shrine outside the city and transport them somewhere far away from either Fanelia or Asturia in order to prevent them from causing trouble for him later on.

During his office term, Vlad purchased the manor that he and his current family members lived in. The manor rested above the city of Fanelia on a grand cliff looming over the houses below. Vlad was living the life he was accustomed to while he was the Head Sorcerer of the Zaibach Empire. His house was filled to the brim with servants that waited on him hand and foot. He owned his own freestanding army and had legions of guards who stood at attention around his estate. His house was a regular fortress which was something that made the other council members nervous about during his time on the council, not that Vlad ever paid attention to their concerns and actually did anything about it.

For five years, Vlad had sat on the Fanelian Royal Council as the Head Council Member. While Charden was sure his father was attempting to find a way to put him on the Fanelian throne, it turned out that Vlad was using his position as the Head Council Member to distract the council while he worked on a lager plan that not only involved Fanelia but the entire world of Gaea.

When Vlad had worked as the head sorcerer of the Zaibach Empire, he had been interested in reconstructing the Tarndulosk because he saw it as more of a destructive device than the Atlantis Machine, which only granted wishes. Emperor Dornkirk was not interested in using the Atlantean technology for destruction so Vladimir's requests to build the machine had been declined. Charden knew that his father had wanted to rebuild the machine ever since he became the head of the Fanelian Royal Council. He also knew that part of the reason his father had brought him into this world was to help realize his dream of constructing the Tarndulosk, but beyond that, Charden had no idea what his father was planning.

Now, Charden's older brother Foruma had been summoned by their father to help him with his current mission and this little detail was playing on Charden's last nerve. Charden had insisted the previous evening that he wouldn't need any help, but Vlad had shot Charden a very serious glance in his direction when he caught up with his son in the manor's parlor. Vlad insisted that Foruma was more experienced than him in matters like these and that Charden had to bring him along if he expected to have his father's favor in future endeavors.

Foruma was very different than Charden. He was older by about two years and that small age difference made a big difference in his maturity level and his outlook on life. While Charden had golden blond hair and light blue eyes, Foruma had sandy blond hair and dark blue eyes. His skin was less pale and more natural looking in appearance. In some respects, Foruma resembled Folken from the kingdom of Fanelia in his features, just like Charden resembled Van.

Foruma was the calculating type like their father and never went ahead with a plan unless he was certain it worked through to the last detail. Charden was more the type of person who got an idea in his head and acted on it immediately, whether it was thought through all of the way or not. He figured he would work out the details along the way and most of the time he did because he was a very intelligent young man, despite his impulsiveness.

Foruma never seemed to be bothered by anything, or if he was, he wouldn't let anyone see that he was upset. He was an expert at masking his emotions and in all the years Charden had known him, he had never even him so much as smile. Charden on the other hand was bothered and annoyed by every little thing, from the servants bringing him the wrong breakfast item, to people not getting to a point in a conversation fast enough.

Part of this had to do with the fact that Charden's gift was reading people's minds. Since he usually knew what people were thinking before something came out of their mouths he didn't like waiting around for them to finish speaking. Their thoughts whispered to him and pointed him in the right direction before they had a chance to actually start talking, so when people kept running their mouths, it bothered him to no end. Couldn't they see that he already got the point? The only people who he couldn't read the thoughts of were his brother and father because they were both powerful spell casters in their own right and masked his abilities with their own.

Foruma's gift was telekinesis. He could levitate items of any size, which often came in handy for him in hand to hand combat if he happened to lose his sword or other fighting instrument. Foruma rarely used his gifts however, because he thought it was an unfair advantage over an opponent and insisted on winning a fight without using his abilities unless he absolutely had to. In his mind, fighting someone on equal ground was the honorable thing to do.

Charden thought his brother was very foolish for believing in something like giving an opponent a fair advantage in a fight, as he used his mind reading abilities whenever it suited him and didn't think twice whether it was the honorable thing to do or not.

Charden had a terrifying knack for robbing people's memories and playing with their minds since he had mastered the ability to delve into people's thoughts and retrieve information. He played around with his gift and realized that he could make people forget things, invent memories, and even control their thoughts if he concentrated hard enough. Foruma thought his brother's constant abuse of his abilities was irresponsible and often scolded him for playing with their servant's minds for his own amusement, but Charden blew of his brother's words and did as he pleased.

Charden and Foruma rarely saw eye to eye on anything and why their father wanted them to work together on their current mission was beyond him, but he wasn't going to argue over the matter. The truth was that Charden was terrified of his father. Vlad he had powers that neither he nor his brother could fathom. Charden would rather not invoke his father's wrath if he could help it. He knew that the fact that he was related to him would do little to curb his father's anger.

Vlad had killed their mother Escalina for questioning his position as the Head Sorcerer for the Zaibach Empire. In Vlad's mind, his wife's only purpose had been to give birth to his two sons and when her purpose was fulfilled he was not obligated to take care of her anymore. The day she had attempted to leave the palace out of disgust for what he had become, Vlad had called the Palace Executioner to cut off her head in front of his two sons.

Foruma had begged their father to spare Escalina's life and had earned himself a night in the palace dungeon as well as a beating from one of the palace prison guards. Charden didn't understand why Foruma cared. Their mother had defied their father in the most humiliating way possible, so he saw no reason why Vlad couldn't punish her for her treasonous actions. Charden stood beside his father that evening and watched in delight as Escalina's head was dislodged from its shoulders by the palace executioner and he even smiled a bit.

Vlad turned to his son after the execution and blasted him with a power bolt that he had been building up between his hands during the execution. Charden fell to the floor as his father stepped on his back as though he were a bug.

Vlad stared down at his son and said in a dark tone, "If you ever try to turn against me you will end up just like your mother. Foruma knows this too, so don't go asking your brother for help."

Vlad stepped off of his son's back and walked away without saying another word. Charden shakily pulled himself off of the floor and stared after his father with terror in his eyes. He had never dreamed of crossing his father, but any inclination he might have ever had of betraying him disappeared in that moment.

That didn't mean he had to agree with his father's current plan to take over Gaea or like the person he had to work with to see that the plan did not fail. He stood in the hall facing his brother with a large frown on his face. Foruma returned his stare in silence. Charden could tell that his brother wasn't thrilled about his father's idea to team them up any more than he was, but it wasn't like he had any choice in the matter. Foruma had a fear of Vlad that ran deeper than Charden's and he wasn't about to invoke their father's wrath by refusing to work with his brother.

Foruma was the first to break the silence as he walked forward, closing the distance between himself and Charden. He stopped when he was standing only a few feet away.

"It's been a while since the last time I had the pleasure of seeing my younger brother. I trust that father has been treating you well."

Charden took a step back dramatically and sneered. He wanted the physical distance between them to match the emotional distance he felt inside of him.

"We both know that father has always treated me better. That's because I follow his plans. You always try to calculate things so you don't hurt as many people along the way. I will never understand the way you think, Foruma. It always earns you the most dreadful punishments from father later on."

Foruma visibly stiffened as he recalled all of the punishments Vlad had given him over years, one of which had involved stretching him on the rack until every bone in his body had been pulled apart. Fortunately, his father had called a family healer who was able to use magic to piece him back together again, but it didn't make the experience any less horrible. He fought back the memories flooding over him like a suffocating wave long enough to relax his muscles and attempt to clear his mind. When he regained control of his emotions, he turned away from his brother with a look of disgust on his face.

"I guess that I am that type of person who values human life. I don't care what kind of punishments I get for helping others later on. The only thing that matters is that I carry out a mission leaving minimal damage in my wake. I wouldn't expect you to understand something like that. You play with people as though they are toys. I can see that after all of these years, you still have not grown a conscience."

Charden gave a small huff.

"Why would I? My temperament is what makes me father's favorite. Anyway, it's not like I can erase all of the crimes he's had me commit for him. I was born for the purpose of helping him build the Tarndulosk. Why can't you accept that too? It would earn you more of father's favor. It might even give you a shot at living when he has achieved his goal."

Foruma continued to look away from his brother as he spoke.

"And is that why you follow his orders? Because you want a chance to live? Personally, I wouldn't care if he killed me tomorrow. At least I would be reunited with our mother in the afterlife. I would no longer be subject to his control. But he won't be that kind to me. I've tried escaping that way many times in the past and he has made it clear that he needs me. He put an enchanted mark on my right arm which prevents me from doing any harm to myself. It's a pity, really. I've also tried defying him on more than one occasion, but eventually he grew tired of my rebellious streak and put an enchanted mark on my left arm that forces me to carry out his will whether I want to or not. Fortunately, the mark gives me leeway in terms of sparing people's lives, just as long as I get the main job taken care of. If you continue to be his favorite, maybe he'll spare you the trouble of bearing those curses but knowing him, he's probably subjected you to at least one of them."

Charden spat on the ground in front of him.

"What's it to you whether I have a mark or not? If you really want to know, I happen to have a mark on my left leg that keeps me from committing suicide but the reason father gave it to me isn't for the same reasons he gave it to you. He just put it there as a precaution. I think you are a fool for trying to take your life, Foruma. You will find the same hell in the afterlife as in the world of the living. Death doesn't bring people like you or me peace, it only brings eternal suffering. Now that you have told me about your pathetic life, things are coming together a bit. It's no wonder that father insisted that I get this mark put on me even though I assured him that I would never do anything that stupid. It was humiliating when he cast that spell on me like I was some patient in a mental institution. That's another thing I have to thank your insolence for."

Foruma gave Charden a kind of half smile. Part of his face was covered in shadows so it was hard to tell whether he was smiling all of the way or not, but Charden doubted it as Foruma rarely showed emotion.

"Anything for my dearest brother." He said, in a dark tone.

Charden turned away from Foruma. His brother was acting infuriating as usual. Charden could see that their conversation was getting them nowhere so he tried to move it along. After taking a moment to clear his mind he continued.

"Anyway, we have a mission to carry out. Hopefully you've thought of a plan and you didn't just summon me here to listen to you complain about our father"

Foruma didn't spare a look at his brother as he drew a map out of a satchel hanging at his side. He unfurled it slowly and pointed toward a forested area drawn on it.

"There is a power spot outside of Fanelia, located beside the trade route that leads to the beast man village of Arzas. Vlad left that power spot open intentionally for us to use. We will use the power spot to take us into the heart of the Egzardian royal palace. Father has lent me the Kebarean Pendant to help us use its energy to operate the power spot at the trade route. Once we are in the palace, we will search for the twin princesses Silha and Kolt Dravarion, who guard the Atlantis Pendant as one of their royal duties. All we have to do is whisper a mantra that will awaken their true identities. Once they realize who they are, the mantra will force them to serve our family's bloodline without question. They will willingly hand over the pendant and follow us back to Fanelia to be used by Vlad later on."

Charden grumbled.

"What good are too spoiled princess to us? Can't we just kill them and take the pendant by force?"

Foruma rolled the map up and placed it back in his satchel. He frowned, disgusted at his brother's need to spill blood wherever he conducted his business.

"Why are you so compelled to kill everyone you come into contact with? To be honest, I have no idea why Vlad wants them, but it's not my place to question his orders. I carry out whatever he asks of me whether he explains things to me or not. It's not like I have a choice in the matter. The mark inscribed on my left arm makes sure of that."

Charden turned back around to face his brother in protest but he found he was staring at empty space. Foruma had already started to walk toward the exit of their manor without him. Charden muttered a cuss word under his breath and ran after his brother until they were walking side by side. He stared at his brother darkly when he caught up with him.

"You could have told me you were going to leave. I can see this is going to be a very long trip."

Foruma didn't answer. He silently walked toward the horse stables which were built to the right of the manor courtyard. When he was inside, he mounted a white thoroughbred that had already been prepared for the journey. Charden followed his brother into the stables and mounted a brown mare that had also been prepared for him to ride earlier that day. The two exchanged hateful glances and then simultaneously hit the sides of their horses with their left feet. The horses reared up slightly and galloped out of the stables. The two men steered their mares toward the trade road in the distance with Foruma leading the way.

It only took about twenty minutes to reach the trade road from their family manor. When the two men reached their destination, Foruma immediately pulled the Kebarean Pendant out of his satchel.

He lifted it to eye level and said the words, "Mezel Metana."

All at once a pillar of light fell from the sky and engulfed their horses in a sea of light. They were lifted up into the light atop their horses and were instantly transported to the heart of the Egzardian royal palace. When the hooves of their mares touched the ground of the palace courtyard, the pillar of light broke onto a thousand miniature light orbs around them and then disappeared into the blackness of the night.

The two men dismounted and tied their horses to one of the trees in the courtyard.

When their horses were securely tied, Foruma closed his eyes and said the words, "Lebene Lostla."

The pendant glowed a shade of dark purple and their horses were made invisible to the people of the palace. Foruma and Charden were also made invisible with the same wish. Foruma turned to his brother, who the wish allowed him to see although no one else in the palace could.

"That wish should make us invisible to all of the people in the palace. Let's find the princesses, force them to hand over the pendant, and take them back with us before anyone notices that there is something out of the ordinary."

Charden nodded and the two made their way to a section of the palace which had a row of rooms lining the far right wall of a giant hallway. The two stopped when they were at the hallway entrance.

Foruma turned to his brother and said, "Now, this is where your mind reading abilities can help us. Use your power to discover which room the princesses are in. If you don't, we will waste time looking for them."

Charden grumbled.

"Like I needed YOU to tell me that. That's what I've been doing since I entered the place. Why do you think I led you down this hallway? You shouldn't underestimate me because I am younger."

Foruma gave a heavy sigh.

"I wasn't underestimating you. I was just making sure we were on the same page with things. If you've picked up on their thought patterns, then which room are they in? We need to hurry before someone notices something is amiss."

Charden pointed toward the third door in the hallway.

"They are in that room, but they are surrounded by eight palace servants, who apparently have been summoned to help them straighten up their room as they are expecting a visit from King Chid Zar Freid from the kingdom of Fried tomorrow morning. If we enter the room we will attract too much attention. We won't be able to sneak by that many people, whether we are invisible or not."

Foruma expelled a long sigh and rubbed his chin in thought. His brother had a point; they couldn't just walk through the door; it would look suspicious with that many people in the room. He was at a loss at what they should do momentarily but then he had a thought.

"You said there were servants in the room right? Eventually, those servants will have to leave to perform other duties throughout the palace. When they leave the room, we will rush past the open door and make our way inside. That way, nothing will seem out of place."

Charden pondered this and strained to read the thoughts of the servants. It so happened that the servants had just finished with the cleanup work and were moving toward the bedroom door to leave. The head servant was about to open the door to let her assistants out through it. Charden snapped out of his dazed state and grabbed his brother's arm, pulling it forward.

"It's a good idea but we have to act fast. The palace servants are leaving the room now."

Foruma nodded as Charden let go of his arm and the two men ran toward the third door in the hall. When the door flew open, the two men rushed inside. They made it through the open door with little trouble, much to their relief. When they were inside the room, they turned around in time to witness the serving girls leave the room one by one. The Head Servant waited until her assistants had left the room and then closed the bedroom door behind her.

When her assistants were assembled in the hallway, the two men heard the Head Servant instruct the girls to start setting up the dining room, from the other side of the wall. They listened as the group of young woman left down the palace corridor, talking about the chores they had to complete before King Chid of Freid arrived in the morning.

As the servants walked away from the bedroom door and headed off to perform their duties on the other end of the palace, the two men directed their attention to the center of the room where Silha and Kolt were sitting on their bed talking to one another. Silha had long silver hair and crystal blue eyes. Her skin was an olive color like most of the people in Egzardia. Kolt had a long gold hair, green eyes, and darker skin with an olive tint to it. The princesses looked identical except for their hair coloring, eye shade, and skin tone. Foruma watched as Silha turned to her sister and smiled mischievously.

"I bet you are excited that King Chid is coming to visit us. You've had a crush on him forever!"

Kolt threw a pillow in her sister's direction. Silha tried to catch it but she wasn't fast enough. It ended up hitting her square in the face. Kolt pouted from her end of the bed and pulled a second pillow to her chest.

"Shut up, Silha! So what if I like him? At least I have a crush on somebody. You never show an interest in anyone. It's like you're waiting for a prince who will never show up."

Silha removed the pillow from her face and tossed it back in her sister's direction. Kolt caught the pillow and placed it in her arm with the other one. Silha frowned.

"For your information, I am not waiting for anyone in particular. I just think dating is a waste of time. I'm too busy with my palace duties to take interest in something like that. You should take your palace duties more serious too. One day you will be the head of the Egzardian Royal Army and will help protect the kingdom from danger, while I will be the Crowned Princess. There won't be any time for crushes then."

Kolt whined.

"You always take the fun out of everything, Silha. I doubt our kingdom will be brought to its knees because I have a crush on someone. Lighten up a bit. If you do, maybe you'll find someone you like too."

Silha rolled her eyes and moved toward their shared vanity to pick out a comb to add to a braided section of her silver hair. Foruma saw this as the perfect opportunity to act.

He raised the Kebarean Pendant up and said the words, "Festminus Faren."

The moment Silha had grabbed the comb off the vanity's top surface she froze, holding the comb at eye level. Kolt loosened her grip on the pillows she was holding from her place on the bed and stared forward with a blank expression on her face.

Silha absent mindedly placed the comb in her hair after a moment of holding it in her hand and turned to face the invisible men in the room. Kolt placed the pillows at the front end of the bed and walked toward them. When they reached the place where Foruma and Chid were standing they kneeled respectfully before them.

From their place on the floor they said in unison, "We will serve the house of Vladimir Kent until we draw our last breath. What is thy master's bidding?"

Foruma looked at the girls with a hint of sadness in his eyes as held the pendant up and said the words, "Lebene Lostla."

The pendant momentarily glowed a dark shade of purple and then returned to its normal black color. The princess disappeared into the nothingness that Charden and Foruma were cloaked in. Now the princesses were invisible like they were and could see Foruma and Charden as clear as day. They no longer had to rely on their abilities to sense their presence. Foruma stepped forward and gestured for them to stand to their feet. The girls obeyed and were now standing at eye level to Foruma and his brother.

Charden had been watching all of this in amazement and was a little annoyed that his father hadn't given him the Kebarean Pendant to use during their mission, choosing his brother Foruma to bear it instead, but he tried not to think about that small detail too much. He had a mission to complete and his mind was completely focused on the task at hand. He would deal with his brother when they returned to the manor later on that evening.

He looked into Kolt's green eyes and asked, "Where is the Atlantis Pendant that the royal house of Egzardia protects?"

Kolt pointed towards her sister's chest.

"Silha wears the Jewel of Atlantis to mark her title as the Crowned Princess of Egzardia."

As if on cue, Silha took off the Atlantis Pendant that had previously been tucked into the collar of her dress and dangled it in front of her. Charden took the pendant from Silha's grasp. She handed it over to him without protest and watched serenely as he put it around his neck. Charden momentarily forgot about the harsh feelings he had toward Foruma for possessing the Kebarean Pendant. He had his own trinket now and there was nothing left for him to be jealous about. Foruma gave a dark smirk.

"Good, you are taking the Atlantis Pendant into your care. That is what father intended you to from the beginning. When we capture the Atlantis Pendant from the Basram historian, I will take ownership of it. Then I can return the Kebarean Pendant to our father. When we have the final Atlantis Pendant in our hands, we will be the only people on Gaea who possess the ancient power of Atlantis."

Charden was momentarily taken aback by the sudden piece of information his brother had shared. He was sure that his father had told him the previous evening to steal the Atlantis Pendants so he could dispose of them at a later date. He couldn't imagine why his father would have changed his mind about something like that without letting him in on the details, especially on such short notice. It just wasn't like his father to act on a sudden impulse; he was the type of man who meticulously worked out each of the steps of his plans to the very last detail.

Charden stared at Foruma with his mouth open in shock for a few moments and then gaped, "I thought that father wanted us to destroy the Atlantis Pendants when we brought them back to the manor. Why does he want us to hold on to them? I got the impression that he didn't feel comfortable having them around, especially since it is possible that an enemy could take the Atlantis Pendants into their possession and the power of Atlantis against us."

Foruma gave small, dark laugh that chilled Charden to the bone and then winked at his brother.

"You can thank me for that. When father summoned me to talk about our current mission, he brought up his intentions to destroy the Atlantis Pendant and I told him that I thought it would be a waste of resources. I talked him into letting you and I keep the Atlantis Pendants we would eventually possess after stealing them from Basram and Egzardia to use as weapons against our enemies. I also mentioned that it would be easier for us to have our own way of generating power spots, rather than having to borrow his pendant all of the time. After bringing up a few other things we could use the pendants for, he seemed to agree that the Atlantis Pendants had more useful applications than he had originally thought and agreed to let you and I keep them for ourselves."

Charden was a bit surprised that his brother would actually suggest something like that to their father and raised an eyebrow at him suspiciously.

"You never want anything to do with father's plans, so why would you attempt to help him with something like that? You must have some ulterior motive. I know that you wouldn't suggest something like that unless it benefited you in some way."

Foruma turned away from his brother and headed toward the door.

When he reached the front entrance of the room, he turned back to look at his brother and said, "That's of no concern to you. Just be grateful that you get to keep the Atlantis Pendant after our mission is over. Anyway, we need to get the princesses out of here before someone notices what we are doing. We don't have time to discuss trivial things like this right now. Tell the girls to follow us to the courtyard. I am putting you in charge of watching over them."

Foruma turned around and cautiously opened the front door to the princesses' room as Charden stared after him with a look of disgust on his face. Any shock he had previously been held under the spell of instantly wore off when his brother's ridiculous order had finally registered in his mind.

"Why do _I_ have to watch after them? Aren't you better at things like this?" Charden spat as he gestured for the girls to follow him to the door and they did so without question.

Foruma walked the rest of the way through the door with Charden and the two princesses following behind. When everyone was out in the hall, Foruma walked past the group and shut the door as discretely as he could. The door closed smoothly without making a single noise. Foruma sighed a breath of relief and then turned to his brother with a dark smirk on his face.

"I figured something like this might teach you a thing or two about valuing human life. You can't kill them because father ordered you to bring them back alive. Maybe if you have someone like them to care for you will understand my willingness to help protect the innocent people father involves in his schemes. It might not affect you at all, but it is worth a try. At least you won't get in trouble for it. You are just performing the task father asked you to."

Charden muttered a few cuss words under his breath and didn't say anything else. He knew there was no point arguing with Foruma. Foruma wasn't the type of man you could reason with or talk sense into; he did what he wanted no matter what the consequences of his actions were. Foruma was waiting for a response and Charden just grunted. Foruma knew his brother well enough to know that it was a grunt of approval and kept moving forward when he was satisfied with his answer.

Charden tried not to let his brother's odd request get to him. He wouldn't have to deal with the princesses when they returned to their family manor, so it didn't make a difference who watched over them anyway. Charden took the girl's hands in each of his own and followed after his brother. The princess allowed him to pull them along without saying as much as a word in protest. The men had little difficulty leading the princesses to the courtyard where their horses were still tied to a Cherry Tree. They walked over to their horses and untied them as quietly as they could manage.

They were the only people in the courtyard so it was safe to talk at their normal voice level again.

Foruma pointed at the girls and said, "They are going to ride with you."

Charden gave his brother a look.

"Why can't one of them ride with you? I don't see why I have to carry both of them on my horse."

Foruma mounted his hose and then stared down at his brother from his place on top of it.

"If I did that, you would not learn anything. Besides, if you return to the palace carrying both of the princesses on your horse, father will get the impression that you did the majority of the work yourself, which will earn you even more favor with him. That's what you want, isn't it?"

Charden grumbled and turned towards the two princesses without answering his brother. He helped lift Kolt to the very front end of the saddle, and sat her sister behind her. Charden knew that he couldn't fit on the horse with them, so he took the reins in his hands and prepared to lead the horse forward with them once they reached the trade route.

Foruma lifted the pendant to eye level when he saw that the girls were mounted on the horse behind him and said the words, "Mezel Metana."

A pillar of light instantly fell from the sky and transported the group back to the trade route where they had begun their journey earlier that evening.

When the group touched down and the pillar of light dispersed, Foruma led his horse toward their manor in the distance a walking pace. Charden pulled the reigns of his horse and followed after his brother on foot with the two princesses sitting on top of his horse behind him. Charden knew that it would probably take a while to reach the manor going at their current speed, which put him in a sour mood. Foruma seemed to pick up on his brother's negative energy and gave a dark chuckle. Charden ignored it and continued to walk forward pulling the girls along with him.

Silha seemed to regain some of the memories that contained her personality on the way there and started talking to her sister Kolt. Charden was not worried. He knew that the spell awakened their true identities and they wouldn't have any recollection of their previous life. The only thing left were their personalities and their ambition to follow the bloodline of the Kent household no matter what. Silha stopped talking to her sister after a while and leaned over Kolt's shoulder to get a look at her captor.

She smiled and asked, "Where are you taking us, member of the house of Kent?"

Charden frowned. He inwardly hated his brother for giving him this task and shot him a dark look. Foruma didn't see it. He was faced forward on his horse and was leading it toward their manor in the distance in silence.

Charden gave a huff and replied, "We are taking you to your master. You will obey him and behave yourselves or there will be hell to pay. Do you understand?"

Silha nodded.

"Yes master. We will gladly serve the house of Kent. We wouldn't even think twice about betraying our master."

Charden gave another huff.

"Make sure you don't. You can ask Foruma all about what happens to people that try to cross our father."

Foruma muttered something under his breath but did not respond to his brother's comment.

Kolt leaned to the side of the horses head and piped in, "You are the sons of our master so we will serve you without question as well. You never have to worry about us turning against you either. We will loyally follow your every command."

Charden was amused by Kolt's determination to serve his family and was warming up a little to the idea of having a personal servant that followed his every command without having to mess with their minds.

"Well, just make sure that you do. I wouldn't want father to be angry with you."

Foruma smiled from his place atop the white thoroughbred. This was a good lesson for his brother. If he hung out with those two princesses long enough, he knew they could teach him a thing or two about human relationships, which was something that Charden knew little about, especially after watching their mother get killed in front of him at such a young age. Maybe it wouldn't be enough to change him, but at least it would set him on the right path.

It took about forty minutes to reach their family manor at walking speed. Along the way, Charden had really warmed up to the princesses. He even started talking to them about some of his hobbies, which surprised Foruma.

"_I guess even a person like Charden doesn't want to be alone. He wants someone to reach out to. Although I get the feeling he is more excited about having loyal servants that won't ever try to cross him than making new friends."_ Foruma thought to himself, as he led the group in silence.

They stopped halfway through their journey to eat some of the food they had packed on their horses and drank some water. After taking their small break the group continued to the Kent family manor with the moon shining brightly in the sky above them. When the group reached the entrance of the manor courtyard, Foruma dismounted his horse and led it to the stables. Charden helped the princesses get off of his horse and gestured for them to follow him as he led his own horse through the stable doors. He placed his horse beside Foruma's inside the stall and watched as his brother drew the Kebarean Pendant up to his eye level again.

He said the words, "Lebene Lostla" and the cloak of invisibility was lifted from the group at once.

When the wish had been granted he turned to his brother and said, "You can deliver the princesses to our father on your own. Here's the Kebarean Pendant. You can give that back to him as well."

Foruma handed Charden the Kebarean Pendant. When his brother took it in his own hand he started to walk out of the stable.

Before Foruma disappeared out the door, Charden called after him, "What about you? Won't father be angry if you don't bring the princesses to him with me? You might earn yourself another evening in the torture chamber if you don't comply with his demands."

Foruma stopped at the entrance of the stables but did not turn around.

"Father wants me to start working on a plan to steal the Atlantis Pendant from Basram. He instructed me to start working on it as soon as we returned from our trip to Egzardia. He made it clear that he didn't want to see me when I returned. I have to carry out his orders whether I want to or not. Fortunately for you, you can deliver the princesses to him whenever it suits you. You aren't cursed to follow our father's every order like I am. Why don't you show them to the guest rooms at the end of the manor where they will be staying before you take them to meet with father? I'm sure they would appreciate the hospitality."

Before Charden could say anything in protest, Foruma continued walking out the stable door and disappeared into the shadows of the night. Charden was visibly annoyed as he gestured for the princesses to follow him out of the stable. The princesses followed after Charden as he led them to the front door of the mansion. Two guards were standing at attention near the front entrance of the family estate. When they saw Charden they immediately moved to the side and opened the double front doors that led to the front entrance of the estate. Charden instructed the guards to close the doors when they entered the manor and then led the princess to the section of the house that contained the first set guest rooms.

He gestured toward the door of the first guest room and said, "I think that this room will suit you. It has two beds and two washing areas. We usually put larger families in this room, but we haven't had any visitors in a while so I don't see why it couldn't be your room while you are staying with us."

The girls nodded excitedly and followed Charden as he showed them inside. It was a spacious room that contained two wide dressers, two armoires, to beds with canopy tops, two couches, two sitting chairs, multiple end tables, two writing desks, and two chests at the ends of each of the beds. There was a door to the side that led to an outdoor patio, and two doors at the end of the room that led to two separate wash rooms. The girls squealed with delight as they looked over everything. It was just like a room out of a fairy tale.

They thanked Charden for his generosity and he merely grunted in response. He decided it was time to take the princesses to his father after they had gotten a good look at everything, so he asked them to follow him to end of the manor where his father's private quarters were located. They obeyed and silently followed him as he turned a few corners and entered the long corridor which led to his father's room. The door to his father's room was open so he led the princesses in through it.

His father greeted Charden as he stepped inside. Vlad was at his desk writing a letter to someone but he stopped when he saw his son and the new additions to his plan that he had brought to him. He walked up to Charden and the two princesses with a wicked smile on his face.

"Excellent work, Charden! You managed to bring the princesses here successfully."

Vlad paused to get a look at the Atlantis Pendant hanging on Charden's neck and his evil smile widened in delight.

"And I see that you managed to bring the Atlantis Pendant here as well. I trust you had no trouble getting the princesses and the Atlantis Pendant out of the Egzardian palace?"

Charden handed the Kebarean Pendant that Foruma had given to him to Vlad, who took it in his hands.

As his father placed the pendant around his neck, Charden responded, "Of course not, father. That pendant came in real use for us. No one even noticed we had taken the princesses out of the palace. The whole thing ran like clockwork."

Vlad clapped his hands together in joy.

"This is perfect! Another piece of my plan is coming together flawlessly. I take it that Foruma has headed off to plan the next strategy for capturing the Atlantis Pendant in Basram?"

Charden nodded.

"Yes father. He set to work coming up with a plan as soon as we returned. He is probably working on it as we speak."

Vlad's smile dissipated as he thought about his oldest son.

"Well at least he is doing something useful. It's a pity that Foruma doesn't approve of my plans. I would use him to carry out more important tasks if he had my trust. His opinions are of little concern to me. Foruma has to obey whatever command I give him so at least he is of use to me that way. I still don't trust him to go on missions by himself. That is why I sent you with him to Egzardia. I knew he wouldn't blow me off if you went with him. Besides, I think he wanted to see his brother again."

Charden scoffed.

"More like he wanted to anger me beyond all reason. I really don't know why you keep him around. I know you have no reservations about killing someone who as insolent as he is."

Vlad gave a heavy sigh.

"Unfortunately, I can't kill your brother just yet. He is an integral part of my plan, so his life will be spared for the time being. That doesn't mean I haven't thought of it."

Charden felt his throat tighten. He knew his father wasn't talking out of frustration. He really meant to kill Foruma when the right opportunity presented itself. Charden wasn't quite sure what to say and there was an awkward silence between the two of them.

The silence was broken by Silha who asked, "Why have you summoned us to the palace, master? My sister and I want to serve you in any way we can. We'll even kill you eldest son for you if you want us to."

Vlad turned to his visitors with a dark smile.

"It warms my heart to know you are willing to do anything for me, but I don't need you to kill Foruma just yet. For now, I want you to serve Charden and Foruma to the best of your ability. Anything they ask you to do, I want you to carry out without question. Are we understood? An order given to you by either one of my sons is like receiving an order from me."

The two twins bowed in unison.

"Yes master. We will serve Charden and Foruma without question."

Vlad clapped his hands together in joy.

"That's excellent. Now all we have to do it find a room in the manor for you to stay in."

Kolt smiled.

"You don't have to worry about that, master. Charden already picked out a room for us. It is lovely, just like a room out of a fairytale."

Vlad looked over at his son and smiled at him approvingly.

"Good work, Charden. Now, I want you to lead the girls to their room and get them settled in for the night. I will call everyone together to discuss the plans for getting the Atlantis Pendant from the Basram historian with Foruma in the morning."

Charden nodded.

"As you wish, father."

He turned toward the two princesses and gestured for them to follow him out of the room. They waved goodbye to Vlad politely and then followed Charden out into the hallway. Charden dropped the girls off at their room shortly after and told them that they could ask any of the servants in the house for help if they needed it. They promised him that they would ask the servants for help if they needed it and then retired for the evening. Charden walked away from their room and headed towards his, which was located on the second floor of the manor, beside his brothers. He momentarily paused as he reached the front door of Foruma's sleeping chamber.

A part of him felt pity for his brother as he thought about what their father had said about him earlier. He wished that Foruma would just carry out their father's plans without resisting him all of the time. If he did, he wouldn't end up getting killed later. Charden shook himself out of his current state and walked toward his own room. He wasn't sure why he cared what happened to his brother and honestly it disturbed him that he felt things for his brother that he couldn't find a logical explanation for no matter how much he tried to find one. He couldn't understand why he had let himself feel any emotion for his brother at all as he walked through the door of his room absent mindedly.

The thoughts of his brother were instantly replaced with those of sleep when he glanced over the various furniture items in his room and paused when he found his bed. It had been a long day and how all he wanted was to get a good night's rest. He took off the multiple layers of his armor stacked on various regions of his body until only a white tunic and dark brown pants remained on his person. Then, he walked across the room until he stood at the side of his bed, pulled back the covers, and got in between the sheets. He closed his eyes and started to dream about the day his mother had been executed. His brother's face appeared out of nowhere and was stained with tears. The image of his brother crying played over in over in his mind in the few hours he was able to sleep. The dream was a memory he hadn't thought of in years and for the first time it weighed heavy on his heart.


	15. In Which Charden Finds a Heart

Author's Note: Sorry that this chapter is late. My co-author had to poke me with a long, sharp stick to get me to update the fan fiction after taking a year break due to school and other things. I hope you will enjoy it. This chapter was inspired by the Celtic song, "Firelands" and fan pictures of Dilandau. Oh and also this really cute song Merle sings on the Escaflowne soundtrack. I'm not really sure what its name is since it's written in Japanese characters. Oh well. This chapter was probably also somewhat inspired by sleep deprivation and all of the chocolate my family bought for some strange reason that I keep eating…also for some strange reason, as I really don't like chocolate. After reading this chapter, you may think to yourself, "Gee, it seems like the authors of this fan fiction really want to hook everyone up. Maybe that is just my imagination." Well, I will clarify right now; it is NOT your imagination. We are in fact trying to hook up as many people as possible. It's our fan fiction; we can do whatever we want! So now, enter the chapter where you find out that Charden has a heart. Gasp! Is it possible? Read to find out!

A Week in Tokyo

Chapter Fifteen: In Which Charden Finds a Heart

Charden hadn't even been asleep for three hours before his father sent a servant to wake him. The servant explained that his father wanted to discuss something with him in his study. Charden reluctantly pulled himself out of bed and followed the servant to the study at one of the ends of the house. The servant gave Charden a proper introduction and then left the two men in silence. Charden walked into the study and found his father staring at the upraised screen of the Tarndulosk again. He frowned.

"I see that you are back to work sealing off the power spots. Don't you ever sleep old man?"

Vlad gave a short laugh and gestured for his son to sit. Charden pulled up a chair and sat beside his father. Vlad gestured to the screen of the Tarndulosk.

"I haven't been using the Kebarean Pendant to seal off the power spots; I've been watching the events that took place after you and Foruma stole the Atlantis Pendant and kidnapped the princesses from Egzardia in the Tarndulosk. It seems like no one has noticed their disappearance. It is late at night, and the royal staff probably assumes that the princesses are asleep. Anyway, it isn't tonight that concerns me; it's tomorrow, early in the morning when they try to wake the princesses and they discover that they are not there. This is where I need your help."

Charden frowned as he rubbed his eyes. He could see that he wasn't going to get any sleep and although he was noticeably bothered by this fact he didn't mention how he felt to his father.

He merely asked, "What do you expect me to do about it?"

Vladimir gave an evil smile that exposed his grey teeth.

"You are going to pose as a royal messenger for the royal house of Egzardia. I will cast a spell on you, using the Kebarean Pendant that will make your appearance change to fit the position. Then, you are going to journey to Fanelia with Silha and Kolt and seek an audience with the Royal Adviser, Merle Irini. When you get an audience with her, you will tell Merle that the princesses intend to stay in Fanelia because they want to witness how the rebuilding of the kingdom has been going after the war. Then you will get one of the princesses to ask Merle to send a messenger to Egzardia on an airship to inform the royal house of their intentions to stay in Fanelia for as long as time permits them to. It is crucial that this plan is a success. If we fail, I will be forced to move things forward quicker than I would like, which will not put me in a good mood."

Vlad stared at Charden with his dark blue eyes coldly and Charden visibly stiffened.

"Don't worry father, I won't fail. But isn't it a little late in the evening to give the Fanelian Palace a surprise visit? Won't that seem out of the ordinary?"

Vlad shook his head.

"The princesses have a reputation for being eccentric throughout the kingdoms. It won't surprise anyone in the least that they have decided to travel to Fanelia on a whim. But we have to act fast or everything we've worked so hard for will crumble beneath our feet."

Charden nodded and stood to his feet.

"Alright then; change my appearance so I can make your plan a reality."

Vlad stood up from his place beside the Tarndulosk and held the Kebarean Pendant at eye level as he said the words, "Orious Ormen."

Charden's appearance instantly changed into that of a man with curly brown hair and light green eyes. His new persona was wearing an Egzardian messenger uniform. Charden examined himself in the reflective screen of the Tarndulosk. He was totally unrecognizable, which would work to his advantage.

He gave his father a small salute and said, "You have nothing to worry about. I will wake the girls and complete this mission right away."

His father nodded and gave Charden his blessing before he headed out of the study, down a hall, turned a few corners, and reached the sleeping chamber of Silha and Kolt. Charden entered the room abruptly and shook each of the princesses awake. They each sat up in their respective beds and stared groggily at the new person standing in front of them with question in their eyes.

"Who are you?" Kolt was the first to ask.

Charden grinned.

"I am Charden. Vlad cast a spell on me to make me appear like an Egzardian royal messenger. You girls are going to help us with a little problem we are currently facing."

Silha immediately recognized Charden's voice and her eyes lit up like an oil lamp.

"We will do anything to serve you, master. What do you want us to do?"

Charden gestured toward one of their windows which revealed the city of Fanelia below the cliff top his family's manor rested on.

"We are heading to the Fanelian palace as soon as you are able to make the journey. We will seek an audience with the royal advisor, Merle Irini, and you will tell her that you intend to stay in Fanelia for the time being because you are interested in its progress. When the introductions are out of the way, you will ask her to send a messenger to Egzardia and tell the royal house that you intend to stay for as long as you are permitted to."

The two princesses got out of bed and kneeled before their master.

"Yes Charden. We are ready to leave now, if you need us to. We are still dressed in our formal wear, since we didn't have any night clothing to change into. We can straighten our appearances on the way there."

Charden nodded and gestured for the princesses to rise from their kneeling positions. He then headed toward the bedroom door, with the two girls following close behind him. Charden led them out the front door to the stables where Foruma and his horses had been left in the care of the stable hands earlier that evening. He helped Kolt mount the brown horse, and Silha mount the white thoroughbred. Then he led the two princesses down the steep pathway that led to the entrance of the city below, by the reigns of the horses.

They walked through the streets of the city until they reached the main entrance of the palace. There was long slope of steps that led up to the top platform of the palace where the entrance was located. There were guards on every level and they had already taken notice of their presences. The palace guards immediately walked toward the center of the staircase and drew their swords. When they reached the three travelers, they pointed their weapons at them, making sure they could progress no further. The head guard moved in close to the three travelers and frowned.

"What business do you have at the Fanelian Royal Palace at this hour? The council will not see you without a formal appointment."

Silha drew out a necklace from her dress that had the Egzardian Royal Crest on it and the guards immediately backed down.

"I am the Crowned Princess of Egzardia, Silha Dravarion. I have come here with my sister Kolt Dravarion and one of our royal messengers. We seek council with the Royal Adviser, Merle Irini. If you do not comply with my orders, I will take it as a sign that Fanelia does not want to have friendly relations with my country. I am hoping this is not the case, as I would like nothing more than to stay in this country and learn about its customs. That our purpose for journeying to the palace."

The guards proceeded to back away from the two horses and bowed. The head guard did a full prostration in front of the group.

His face was pressed against his outstretched hands touching the floor when he said, "Forgive me, your majesties, for my rudeness. I was not made aware that you would be stopping by the palace this evening. You are free to go to the Council Chamber. I will lead you there myself."

Silha dismounted her horse and placed her hand on the Head Guard's shoulder, as a gesture that he could rise. He rose to his feet and turned momentarily to face his men.

"Unit seven, inform all of the guards of the palace and royal staff members that the princess of Egzardia are visiting the kingdom of Fanelia. That is a direct order from me. Don't let me down."

A group of fifteen knights at the far end of the stairs gave a salute in unison and marched off to carry out their assigned task. The Head Guard bowed slightly and gestured for the group to follow him as Kolt dismounted the second horse.

"If it suits your majesties, please follow me this way. I will send someone to look after your horses."

The Head Guard signaled for a royal guard man to take the horses to the stables, and immediately the order was carried out. The Head Guard started to walk up the stairs, with the two princesses and Charden following behind. Silha looked around at the architecture of the palace as she climbed the stairs. The stairs were made out of a white stone with emerald veins running throughout them. They climbed a large hill that led to the main base of the palace, which was made out of the same white stone. In the moonlight the emerald veins sparkled, making the staircase and platform appear as though it was covered by a million green fireflies. It was one of the most beautiful things that Silha had ever seen in her life.

On either side of the staircase, there were two fortresses that were built out of the same white stone. The towers of the fortresses had a gothic look to them and were lined with royal guards on the top levels. When they reached the top platform, they stood in front of a large stone door that was built in the shape of a pointed archway. There were two guards posted on each side of the stone door and when they saw the group approaching they pulled the doors open in unison. The group made their way through the large doorway into the front entrance of the palace with the Head Guard leading the way.

Silha was not the only one who was impressed by the sheer size and majesty of the palace. Kolt was looking around at the main entrance and then each of the chambers they passed with awe. The inside of the palace was built in the same gothic theme as the outside. There were pointed archways, large stained-glass windows illustrating Fanelia's history, and beautiful statues of the Gods and Goddesses of the world at every turn. The palace was simply breathtaking. Kolt had traveled to many kingdoms over the years, but none of them had a castle as mysterious and beautiful as the castle of Fanelia.

Finally, after walking down a large corridor, the Head Guard finally led them to the Council Chamber. It was a circular room with many paintings lining the walls. In the center of it, there was a stone table in the shape of an oval with twelve gold chairs positioned around it. The gold chairs had sculptures of dragons adorning them, and each had a red cushion fastened to the back of them as well as the seat. The cushions were made out of silk and were stuffed with a rare cotton that was only found in that part of the word. Charden had to hand it to King Van; he had impeccable taste when it came to making cosmetic decisions for his castle. There wasn't anything else on Gaea quite like the Fanelian Royal palace.

When the group was led to the center of the room, the Head Guard gestured for the palace guests to take a seat. Charden, Silha, and Kolt sat in the three chairs nearest to the entrance of the chamber as the Head Guard gave the group another formal bow.

"I will summon Merle Irini to you immediately."

The Head Guard rose from his bow and walked down the corridor toward Merle's room. Merle's bedroom chambers were located at the Far East wing of the palace. It took the Head Guard a while to get there, but when he reached her room, he saw that the door was open. Merle was awake, fiddling with her nail file necklace as she sat at her desk and stared absentmindedly at the stack of papers in front of her. The Head Guard knocked on the open door as a courtesy and bowed slightly forward. The knocking snapped Merle out of her dazed state and she turned toward the front door to see the Head Guard bowing at her.

"Lady Merle, the Princesses of the Royal House of Egzardia wish to speak with you. They are waiting in the Council Chamber for your arrival."

Merle groaned and returned her nail file necklace to its usual place around her neck.

"Why did they come so late? I have this stack of papers to work on this evening. The council assigned me to look over them in Van's absence. Can't they come back in the morning, Ibrem?"

Ibrem rose from his bow and frowned.

"I am sorry Lady Merle, but the princesses say that they need to talk to you right now. It is an urgent matter that can't wait until the morning."

Merle sighed and rose from her place at the desk.

"Very well then; let's get this over with so I can get back to work. I Guess I can look at it like I'm taking a break. I wasn't getting too far with the paperwork anyway. I can't believe that Van has to read over that boring stuff every day. It's no fun at all!"

Merle walked past Ibrem to the other end of the door and then the two of them started down the hall. They walked for some time before they reached the Council Chambers. Upon arriving, Merle saw that the three visitors were keeping themselves busy with a card game they kept on the center of the table for people who were waiting on one of the council members or the king to aid them. When Charden caught sight of Merle he immediately stiffened. His father had never told him that Merle was a beast woman.

Without thinking, he put down his hand of cards and blurted out, "Fanelia has some weird customs, letting people of the forest take up high positions in government."

Merle growled in a low tone, the way most cats do when you are doing something that bothers them as a warning to cut it out.

"My clan is considered scared to the people of Fanelia, just like pack leader Ruhm's clan is sacred to them. The cat people of the surrounding area helped to build the first castle, and the wolf men helped guard the city from invaders during the first war. It is only natural that we would have high positions in government and in the community as well."

Charden scoffed.

"And what could forest animals have to offer to government officials? I'm sure the council members don't want advice on how to store acorns for the winter."

Merle hissed and her fur stood on end. Ibrem gulped and took a few steps back. He knew very well the way Merle got when her people were insulted, and he would rather not be involved in the fight unless it became absolutely necessary to intervene. Merle stared menacingly down at Charden, her eye pupils retracting sideways into two straight lines.

"Just because I came from the forest it doesn't mean I am some back woods hillbilly. I was raised in the castle and I studied classic literature from a young age. I am educated like any royal family member ought to be. What era did you come out of, the stupid one? Things have been changing since the war with Zaibach anyway. Beast men and woman are getting more rights all over the world. So even if I wasn't part of a sacred tribe, I still have a right to be here!"

Charden was taken aback by Merle's words. That was the first time anyone besides his brother had ever stood up to him. He didn't know why, but he actually started to feel guilty about what he had said.

He cleared his throat and then said, "I am truly sorry. It was wrong for me to assume things. You are right; beast men and woman have been getting more rights since the war. I hope you can forgive me."

Charden couldn't believe what he had just said. Was he actually giving in to an enemy's demands? He placed one of his hands over his mouth in shock and stared up at Merle. She was smoothing out her ruffled fur and trying to make herself more presentable after her outburst. He momentarily caught sight of her dark blue eyes and felt his heart beat fast against his chest. They were detracting into their normal, round shape and they shone under the artificial lights of the Council Chamber, adding to their beauty. She didn't have the eyes of an ordinary person; they were wild and mysterious and playful all at the same time.

He glanced up at her hair, which she was desperately trying to smooth out. It was long and pink, with silver ornaments fastened into it. Poking out from each side of her face were two long cat ears. Charden's eyes traveled across her form. Her skin had a small layer of brown fur, and she had black stripes on her legs her arms, and her face. She was wearing a small blue dress which stopped at her knees. It had a halter top, which meant it exposed skin in the back. Charden realized that merle had a short dress because she had a tail sticking out from behind her, which was also stripped. She wore two elegant navy boots which had buckles and rose to her calves. She was unlike anything Charden had ever seen in his life. He slowly lowered his hand and continued to stare at Merle in awe as she made her way over to the table.

Merle pouted and looked down at Charden when she reached his place at the table.

"Well, I guess I can forgive you this time, since your apology sounded genuine, but don't go around saying stuff like that again. If you do it won't earn you any trust from the locals. You might even get into a few fights."

Charden nodded slowly as she took the seat beside him. For some reason, he couldn't keep his eyes off of her. Just what was his problem anyway? Charden's thoughts were broken as Merle smiled at her guests. Charden felt his heart pounding hard against his chest again when he saw her smile.

"I am sorry that I reacted like that. I'm just very protective of my clan and other beast men and women; especially after all of the trouble my people have faced in the past. I hope you can forgive my rude behavior."

Silha smiled from her side of the table.

"It isn't any trouble at all. It is natural that you would feel that way. You will have to forgive us; in Egzardia, we do not have many dealings with the people of the forest, so we are not informed of their ways. I hope you can excuse my royal messenger..."

Silha paused for a moment to think of a name and then continued, "…Azrael Tarek, for his rude behavior."

Silha shot Charden an annoyed glance as he had almost blown their cover, but he didn't pay it any mind. He was still focusing on Merle and trying to understand why when he looked at her he felt the way he did.

Merle brushed off Silha's worries with a small wave of her hand.

"Don't worry about it. It was just a misunderstanding. So, now that we've got things resolved, let's get down to business. Ibrem; can you leave us please? I think our guests would feel more at home if you were not in the room. Return to your duties guarding the front of the palace. I will take care of our guests from now on."

Ibrem said, "Yes, Lady Merle" and gave a short bow before turning to walk out of the room. When he walked through the door he headed down the hall to return to his guard duties. He was relieved that Merle had calmed down and that he didn't have to stop her from getting into a fight. This showed visibly on his face as he made his way to the front entrance of the palace and signaled toward the front entrance guards to let him through.

Back in the Council Chambers, Merle was smiling at all her guests, which caused her eyes to sparkle under the artificial light.

"Now that Ibrem is gone I will formally welcome you to our kingdom. My name is Merle Irini and I am the Royal Adviser of the Kingdom of Fanelia. I serve directly under Lord Van. I also sit on the Royal Council as a special member. On behalf of Lord Van who is on a hunting trip with friends, I welcome you with an open heart to our kingdom."

Kolt returned Merle's smile, as did her sister. Charden was still watching Merle in a sort of daze. He couldn't figure out for the life of him which was making him act the way he was. He was able to snap himself out of his daze long enough to give a short nod in the cat girl's direction.

He said gently, "We appreciate the warm welcome and we thank you for your generosity. As the royal messenger of the house of Egzardia, I will formally introduce the princesses."

Charden gestured toward the silver-headed princess and said, "This is Silha Dravarion, the Crowned Princess of Egzardia."

Silha bowed her head and raised it up gracefully as Charden gestured toward Kolt.

"And this is Kolt Dravarion, second in line to the Egzardian throne and the head of the Egzardian Royal Army."

Kolt also bowed her head and rose it up gracefully as Charden moved to shake Merle's hand.

"And I, as you have learned from Silha, I am one of the royal messengers, Azrael Tarek. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Merle shook Charden's hand and then faced each of her guests with a warm smile.

"It is a pleasure to meet you all. What brings the princesses of Egzardia to country of Fanelia at this hour, if I may ask? I hope that you haven't met with any trouble in your country."

Silha laughed.

"Oh, we have not met with any trouble at all. Egzardia is a peaceful country. We are rarely engaged in war with the neighboring kingdoms. The first war our country fought in was the Gaean War and we have remained peaceful since then. The reason we have come to Fanelia is to have a well-deserved vacation from our royal duties. You see, my sister and I have been preparing for the arrival of Prince Chid for the past two weeks. We didn't sleep for at least one week, making all of the necessary arrangements. There was a merchant who came to our kingdom last week and told us of a peaceful kingdom called Fanelia where many people take trips throughout the year. He told us that its beauty was unrivaled and that its leader was a kind and gentle man. My sister and I just had to see this for ourselves."

Kolt nodded and picked up where her sister as left off, as if on cue.

"But you see, our father was so determined to have us meet Prince Chid. We knew he would never let us go on a trip like that with Chid visiting the castle. He wanted to show the beauty of his daughters to the Prince so he might be inclined to take one of us as his wife in the future. That is why he had us work so hard on the preparations. He wanted everything to be perfect, and everything to set the mood. Still, my sister and I knew we needed a vacation, especially after a long week making preparations in every way possible, so we set out earlier this evening on a Levi-Ship and headed to the kingdom of Fanelia. We wanted to leave in the middle of the night so our father wouldn't' try to stop us. So we are asking, Royal Adviser Merle Irini, will you please allow us to stay in your kingdom and learn about your country for a while? We also want to request that you send a message to the kingdom of Egzardia on our behalf and let them know where we are so father doesn't get worried. We would be most grateful if you could help us with this."

Merle sighed. The Egzardian princesses lived up to their reputation, all right. Everyone on Gaea knew that the princesses of Egzardia were eccentric and this little stunt they pulled was further proof that the rumors were true. Merle felt like she was developing a headache from everything the princesses had told her. Didn't they know that running away in the middle of the night could be seen as something very bad? Their kingdom might even blame Fanelia for persuading them to come and try to get them back through means of war. Fortunately, Merle had a very good relationship with the Egzardian Royal Council, so she was confident that she could work something out.

After looking at the princesses for a few moments with an annoyed look on her face she finally said, "Alright, I'll see what I can do. I will send one of the Fanelian Royal Council Members to discuss things with your father. You are lucky that Fanelia has such a good relationship with your country. I am sure that King Barsarak Dravarion will be delighted to have you stay in Fanelia; especially if I tell a little fib and say that you are interested in setting up trade between the two countries. Don't forget; Fanelia is one of the most powerful nations on Gaea, besides Asturia. Your father couldn't be angry about you wanting to get to know our trading system better. I'll even tell him that you are doing it as a sign of friendship to Freid, since Van is so fond of Prince Chid. Does what I told you make you feel a little bit better about coming?"

Silha's eyes shined with happiness.

"I am most pleased, Royal Adviser Merle. Thank you so much for helping my sister and me out. Egzardia is forever in your debt. And you know what? Setting up a trade route between your country and ours sounds like an amazing idea. Why fib about it? If it is alright with you, I would like to discuss it with you and the other members of the council at your next meeting. What do you say?"

Merle's look of irritation was quickly replaced with one of joy. Van was going to be so happy to hear about this when he came back!

"Yes, that sounds great! Our next meeting will be two days from now. We can talk about it then. Until then, you two can stay in the palace for as long as you like. We have many guest rooms. Just pick the one that you like the best. I will show you now…"

Merle stood up from the table and motioned for the group to follow them out of the room. Charden tensed up in his seat. Having the Egzardian princesses stay at the Fanelian palace was not a good idea. It would make carrying out tasks for him or his father more difficult and people would suspect something was up if they kept watching the princesses head off toward Vlad's manor whenever they were summoned by him to perform a task.

Charden thought for a moment and when he had come up with a good enough cover he said, "Actually Lady Merle, my father has an estate at the edge of town. We have already made arrangements for the princesses to stay there during their visit. I think they would be more comfortable with us anyway, as our household serves Egzardian dishes and is more familiar with Egzardian customs. If it is possible, I would like the princesses to stay with us as at our estate as some of the Egzardian royal guard is stationed there as well."

Merle thought about the arrangement for a moment and then nodded.

"There shouldn't be any problem with it. The princesses should stay in a place that has all of the things they are accustomed to. I will make sure that the Fanelian council member who serves as the royal ambassador will tell the king Barsarak that Silha and Kolt are staying with the Tarek noble family. I will also make sure that the royal ambassador tells King Barsarak that the princesses will attend a meeting concerning the future trade relations between our two countries in two days. Make sure the three of you come early on Jotoria (author's note: Friday), around eight o'clock if you can manage it, so you will get properly seated in the council room."

Charden rose from his seat and gave a slight bow.

"We will see you then Lady Merle. I will escort the princesses to my estate for now."

Silha and Kolt nodded and rose from their seats as well. Shortly after Merle summoned Ibrem to escort the three guests to the entrance of the palace and retreated to her chambers to finish the paperwork she probably should have had done a lot earlier that day but had been too distracted by court business to touch until later that evening. Ibrem made sure that the princesses were safely mounted on their horses and out of sight of the palace before returning to his post at the top of the palace lookout tower.

On the way back to his father's estate, Charden remained silent which left the two princesses to talk amongst themselves sitting atop the two horses that had led them to the palace at the beginning of their journey. Charden guided the white thoroughbred carrying Silha and the brown horse carrying Kolt by each of the horse's reins. For some reason, he couldn't seem to shake the image of Merle Irini from his mind. There was something that captivated him about her although he couldn't quite place his finger on it. He had to admit that the idea that Merle stood up to his father and removed him from the Fanelian royal council endeared Merle a little to his heart. Charden was afraid of his father and would never dare to do anything as foolish as getting on his bad side. On the other hand, Merle had not only dared to stand up to his father but had even gone as far as to strip him of all of his political power. Merle might be his enemy but she had to be given credit for being as straight forward as she was.

Eventually the three travelers made their way back to the Kent Estate. The horses were returned to the stables, the princess were sent off to bed, and Charden reported all that had happened to his father who seemed to be very pleased with the results of the visit. After Vladimir changed Charden back into his original form, Charden made his way back to his bedroom chambers engrossed in his thoughts. He was still thinking about Merle's enticing stare and the way she had yelled at him for insulting her people. As he stepped inside of his bedroom door and took off his armor for the second time that evening he continued to play the scene over and over in his mind. He couldn't understand why he didn't get angry with Merle. Usually he forced people who didn't agree with him to do as he told him to by imposing his thoughts on their minds. However for some reason this time he had let Merle off of the hook. He even acted polite towards her; something he could never see himself doing even when he was trying to put on an act to get something he desired.

Charden sunk to the floor, gathering his undershirt up in his hands in front of him. He felt like the room was turning black around him which distracted him from any of his previous thoughts. For a moment he thought he saw something like a vision pass in front of his eyes. Merle was sitting at the bank of a river washing clothes with a giant washboard. Charden walked up to her and asked what she was doing which started a long chat between the two. Eventually the two parted ways, and he reported something to the Zaibach Empire via a communication device he had carried with him during his outing into town. In the next segment of the vision he was under a large bridge. Its shadow fell down on him causing the atmosphere to grow colder. All at once a pair of white hands wrapped around his neck and he felt the air being choked out of him. Everything went blank after that. Charden remained hunched over on the floor grasping his shirt and was now breathing heavy. The room returned to its original form and the questions came rolling back into his mind like a wave. What had he just seen? Did that vision mean he had actually met Merle before?

After a while of asking these kinds of questions to himself, he managed to calm himself down long enough to raise himself up from the floor and cross the room to his bed. He sat on the edge of his bed feeling confused and mortified all at the same time. If he had met Merle before, that would explain why he was so willing to give into her demands when he was in the royal council chamber. The thing was that he didn't remember ever meeting her before that moment and this is what had him so troubled. He also didn't remember ever being choked. Charden decided after some deliberation that his mind was just playing tricks on him and chalked the strange series of events up to not getting enough sleep. He pulled himself into his bed and gathered the covers around him. He vowed that he was going to forget all about Merle and whatever effect he had thought she had had on him while he was visiting the palace as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.


End file.
